Statement of Purpose for University

I decided to pursue a degree in Finance following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, which had a powerful effect on both my country and my life. After taking an advanced history course that covered the biggest economic decline of the 20th Century – the Great Depression – I became acutely aware of how an economic crisis can have a devastating impact on global infrastructure. My continued desire to understand the hidden contributive factors behind these downfalls led me to read Akerlof’s and Schiller’s Animal Spirits. This book, which humanizes the subject and challenges conventional theories about economic collapse and recovery, taught me to consider how human psychology and primal group instincts can drive the trajectory of economic development as much as, if not more than, the machinations of banking and politicking. My intrigue having grown to outright passion, I continued my quest for knowledge by reading more related material, such as The Economist and The Wall Street Jurnal. The book Freakonomics, in particular, was of great interest to me, as it explored the obfuscated and s...