Personal Narrative: My Trip To Chicago

Flights land at 7am in the infamous O’Hare airport which seems to be a standard time arriving from Toronto. The markets gear up to open, and the brokers are already thirty stories above the streets in their offices preparing for the day. Chicago is a city of many skyscrapers, traffic, and the odd smell of chocolate coming from the Boomer’s Chocolate Company. It is a city of shadows that casts a never-ending gloom, only to have it broken up into tiny fragments by the narrow gaps in-between buildings. The buildings have floor-to-ceiling windows, making the towers a true curtain of iridescent glass. I’ve been to Chicago many times as an adolescent, far too many for someone who’s still in elementary school progressing towards high school. I was …show more content…
It was not the first time travelling to Chicago or the second time that my desire to study capital markets struck my interests. The third visit to the city of business expanded my perception on what is viewed as a tedious, dull industry to work in; changing my narrow view into something I aspire to do. It all began along the side of my father as we travelled from city to city, attending business meetings which were held in corporate offices once powering large cities before the crisis of 2008. I was able to participate in many trips such as Toronto, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, and of course Chicago. Toronto, Chicago, and Pittsburgh are all very similar cities. Yet, Chicago always stuck out to me as a city to visit for the purpose of knowledge in business. There was a distinct day in Chicago where my passion was ignited by the complexity of the industry. The day of significance was when my father took us onto the Skydeck of the famous Willis tower, home to a financial company that was the foundation of the sector. Standing there 1300 feet above the city, I pondered as to why the financial crash occurred. As we overlooked the vast distance of the skyline, it shocked me how a city of billions of dollars could collapse under the pressure of corruption. Many theorists and researchers had reasonable explanations as to why …show more content…
Such crisis is caused by a periodic housing bubble, subprime lending without repayments, and the alleged failure of credit rating agencies to correctly estimate the risk of these aspects (Neuhauser, 2015, p.1). Chicago experienced these financial declines within their system, while the effect on their corporate trade credit was significant compared to other subunits of the economy. Jobs decreased, tax income fluctuated, and the balance of trade between nations decreased since the economy was performing poorly (Luchtenberg, 2014, p. 512). Low income areas were especially devastated by the financial crash, causing lower wages, labor declines, income inequality, and increased poverty. The low-income segments of society, in particular were struck in a catastrophic way due to most of their wealth being stored in property, and market investments (Dufour & Orhangazi, 2014, p. 462). A myopic view of the economy blurred my vision of reality, and just how viscous the markets are when keeping an economy steady, but still inclining upwards. It’s hard to comprehend the subunits that make up the financial system, due to the complexity of a system that is not physically seen. Previous trips to Chicago and other cities, I held a view that was closed and not open to the real world; how the markets consist of many determinants. My obstructed view