Who is Vik?

A little bit about Vik:

Throughout my life, I have been fascinated by the economy and its ups and downs. I grew up in Palo Alto, California, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a teenager, I was directly exposed to the dot-com boom. I was fascinated by companies such as “Yahoo” and “Amazon” which would jump hundreds of percentage points in a single day. Then came the crash. Entire companies worth billions were wiped out. Accounting scandals dominated the headlines. I kept hearing about the Federal Reserve and how they were trying to stimulate the economy by slashing interest rates.  

I wanted to learn more about what was actually going on. As a senior in high school, I applied to and was accepted by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. At Wharton, I studied accounting, finance, and business operations, and graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics. After graduating, I spent two years in a rotational program at a well-known global bank. Although I had a good theoretical background from college, my banking experience really helped me understand, in real-time, what the financial markets are actually all about. 

I made these videos for a few reasons. I wanted to provide people with a clear and comprehensive guide to the financial crisis. Too many articles and videos are unidimensional, explaining a specific part of the crisis but not explaining the underlying factors in much depth. I wanted to create something that anyone with a basic education can understand, but that would not oversimplify the situation. A quick disclaimer: nothing in any of these videos reflects the opinions of either my alma mater or my former employer. 

I strongly believe that financial literacy is one of the largest, and most solvable global problems. For too long, common people have been taken advantage of by the financial system, which often charges outrageous fees and bonuses at every turn. There is a great opportunity for a new model here, but it requires you, the consumer, to understand what’s going on and prevent companies from overreaching themselves. These videos are my contribution to that effort. 

I hope these videos are useful and enjoyable for you. If they are, please share them. Thank you for listening.