Bassanio in the Merchant of Venice is a gentleman who resides in Venice. Antonio is the dear friend of Bassanio and also a merchant because he loved of his friend Bassanio so much, he signed the Shylocks contract and this made him to almost lose his life. Gratiano is a friend to Bassanio and who gave him company to Belmond. Portia is heiress who is a heiress from Belmont who is very wealthy (Dawood, 2014). This paper seeks to discuss the errors Bassanio made in Merchants of Venice looking them from the perspective good banking practices. Nevertheless, the paper will compare his actions to those of the financial institutions that were major players in the 2007-2009 meltdowns in the United States economy that resulted in several changes. Finally, the paper will also discuss the changes that took place.
There are several mistakes Bassanio made in the Merchants of Venice. Being the main character in the play, he is seen struggling and conflicting with money. It is introduced early from the play that Bassanio owes his friend Antonio lots of money he intended to pay off but instead needed to borrow more. However nice Bassanio seemed to be, he had already squandered lots of money from his friend Antonio on different failed ventures.
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Nonetheless, Bassanio never seemed to have learnt from his mistakes but again ventured in a very risky mission of winning Portia, who was very wealthy. He does not have permanent employment but walks up and about with other men in town. His mission of winning Portia is purely financial. He is interested with her wealth and nor her. However, he first sought to improve his financial standards so us to put on a good show of his wealth which would otherwise convince Portia to fall for him. This is why he chose to borrow too much from his friend in Antonio because Portia also had two other men who pursued her and were very wealthy.
In relation to good banking perspectives, Bassanio made several mistakes in his actions. First, he chose not to work but moved around with fellow in town (Tosi, 2016). He also chose to borrow money from a shylock and yet he was already in dept to Antonio, he should have paid his dept first before choosing to borrow again. Bassanio chose to borrow lots of money from his friend in order to be in a position of winning Portia, this is a financial mistake that he made because money borrowed should actually be used to acquire assets. Assets in turn will bring back profits which will be used in paying for dept and let you remain few coins to invest. He could have used the money borrowed wisely other than use it to satisfy his ego.
The actions of Bassanio can be compared to the actions of financial institutions which became responsible of the 2007-2009 meltdowns in the United States. Financial meltdown can be referred to any financial crisis that has a broad effect. Through this, financial assets loose there nominal value. Financial institutions in the United States begun to give out more money to house owners, loans of various kinds such as credit, card, auto and mortgage were being offered by this banks. Due to the fact that banks were offering easy loans, consumers actually assumed a huge debt load. The ongoing epidemic later led to draining of wealth from consumers which later led to the economy of United States government loosing trillions of dollars.
Financial institutions as well contributed highly to this meltdown as they accumulated a significant debt burdens in their provision of the loans. They are to be blamed for the crisis. Failures in financial regulations also contributed to financial meltdown. Financial institutions never regulated the tide of toxic mortgages. Financial regulation such formulation of restriction guidelines that could maintain the integrity of the financial system. This financial regulation is constituted in different categories such as financial law and case laws. The laws could regulate market practices. There are other financial mistakes that led to the meltdown of 2007-2008. Some of this mistakes include, lack of a good understanding of the financial system, an explosive excessive borrowing that actually put the financial system in a crisis. Another cause was the availability of too many financial institutions which were taking on too much risk. This financial mistakes made by this financial institutions can be compared to the mistakes Bassanio made in The Merchants of Venice.
Finally, the mistakes made by the financial institutions in the United States resulted in very many changes in the financial sector in the United States. Despite the financial crisis, there was also a great recession, and this included: the Central Bank was forced to make drastic changes after the meltdown, extraordinary measures have been taken. Today, banks are more capitalized therefore allowing less money to move around the global financial system.
Having gone through a tough financial crisis period of 2007-2009, there has been a change in the way the government is lending out money. Tighter standards have been put into place to ensure no excessive borrowing. By doing this, there has been a reduction in the household dept over the past decade. There has also been a change in the sectors the government is giving out loans. Unlike earlier on where the financial institutions were offering huge amounts of loans to businesses and other investment ventures which easily crumpled leaving behind depts. Today the financial institutions have changed and are now offering safe loans towards students education which is a good investment assured of returns.
The financial crisis led to the change in the way banks are now operating. Today, there has been a revolution in the banking system as banks are now employing the use of technology in offering services. Banks have chosen to make a switch to digital companies so as to reach their customers with ease. This has actually provided the banks with a productivity boots that was not there before.
The biggest change in the financial sector is the curtailed international activity. This is characterized with less money moving across the borders which has reduced the risk of another crisis being experienced. Another change brought about by the crisis is the global banks retrench. Banks and other financial institutions have now become more localized and less global.
There has also been a rise in the number of non bank lenders who are now offering different types of loans to their clients unlike earlier on where banks and other financial institutions were the only bodies responsible in offering loans. Research conducted has shown that non bank lenders are actually accounting for more than half of the United States mortgage.
The recession also led to the passing of different rules in the United States. For example the in the year 2008 the Senate in the States passed the bipartisan legislation which was meant to reduce the chances of another financial crisis. This legislation also ensured that banks were subjected to planning requirements that were stricter. The senate also passed rules to ease the Dodd-Frank rules which had been enacted just after the 2008 financial crisis.
In conclusion, from the story of Merchants of Venice, the character Bassinio makes some financial mistakes like borrowing money before paying off the initial depths. Doing this put him into more depts. His financial mistakes can be compared to the mistakes made by financial institutions in the United States that brought about the 2007-2009 financial conflicts.
Reference
Curi, C., Lozano-Vivas, A., & Zelenyuk, V. (2015). Foreign bank diversification and efficiency prior to and during the financial crisis: Does one business model fit all?. Journal of Banking and Finance: Supplement 1, 61.
Dawood, H., Abuzahra, N.A., & Farrah, M. (2014). Shylocks Speech in the Merchant of Venice: Critical Discourse Analysis in English Language Pedagogy, 7-22.
Tosi, L., &Bassi, S. (2016). Vision of Venice in Shakespeare. London: Taylor and Francis
