Class this week featured our first two debates of the summer! Each group was given two prompts and tasked with building out an argument for the pro/con side in ~15 minutes. My group was selected to argue that it was immoral for banks to charge interest on mortgages. I have infrequently challenged the way that banks earn money – that’s not to say that I agree with all the “innovative” new products they develop. Arguing this point made me think about the difficulty of owning a home and forced me to ponder alternatives to the standard model. Other models are offered for individuals who intend to buy a house for the sole purpose of renting, where they can pay pure interest and forego the benefit of equity in the asset. My group and I argued the immorality of interest-bearing mortgages using the fact that banks are gaining equity in the asset as opposed to typical bonds where they only source of income is through interest. In retrospect, as principal is paid out the banks are losing equity in the home and if a default occurs (which on a large scale can indicate deeper rooted macroeconomic issues) the bank will typically end up selling the home for less than it was originally worth. The strongest counterargument to any point we made was that if banks weren’t incentivized by interest, they would never offer mortgages. It was a great conversation and I look forward to many more debates!
Work this week was great, I made significant progress on some projects I have been working on, and I became much closer with my coworkers and office mates! I started going out to lunch individually with my coworkers which helped to establish some rapport with them outside of the office. I also got to pull a prank on a coworker who I hadn’t met until this week! Nicoletta, the new coworker, was coming in late to the office and our MD came into our room and told us to pretend that I was someone else. We ended up deciding that I would play the role of the son of a founder whose company Nicoletta denied funding for last week. Riccardo and I went into the conference room and pretended to start a conversation. Nicoletta walked in and I introduced myself as Alex Travers. I brought up the pitch deck and started my appeal for funding. After a few minutes Riccardo told her who I was, and we all had a long laugh. Overall, it was a great week of work, and I cannot wait for next week!
Given that this Friday was Italy’s Republic Day, we were able to take Friday off from work and go visit the town of Verona. We went to a winery where we learned about the process and enjoyed a beautiful lunch accompanied by three of their wines – we even got an extra bottle for correctly guessing one of the ingredients! The wine tasting was followed by a walk around the town where we provided the fellow tourists at the Arena a once in a lifetime rendition of Love Story. As our group belted the song from the top of the Arena, the other visitors began taking videos and applauding, a true American experience. We finished up the week with a trip to Lugano, Switzerland. Lugano was beautiful and I would definitely go back! A slight damper on the week was caused by my untimely trip to the Apple store, where I had to buy a new phone (with an Italian SIM card)! Fortunately, I will be able to return it when they deliver the USA phone to Milan. I’ll update you next week!
