There is not much more disappointing than being really excited about something on your road trip and finding out it falls way short of your expectations. Located on Wall Street, I was super pumped to check out the Museum of Finance, particularly since tours of the New York Stock Exchange are now off limits. I was excited to learn with my kids all about the exchanges, commodities, stocks, bonds and all about the markets.
The museum is literally one floor of displays that give super poor explanations of how and why financial markets operate. What an incredible missed opportunity to educate the public about something really interesting and very relevant to the way we live. I fancy myself a pretty smart cookie and I couldn't make heads or tales of the gobbledygook written to explain what the financial instruments were and how they are traded. The only thing that was truly interesting was the very short film in the beginning that talked about the history of Wall Street and how it was the original location where stock trade was conducted as far back as the colonies in the mid 1700's.
Ugh...so sad. But wait, it get's worse. The least thing they could have had was an awesome gift shop....no dice folks. As much of a let down as the rest of the museum. We walked out without buying a single thing...and that says a lot. Sadly we also missed a tour of the Federal Reserve Bank. With limited tour times and dates it was just impossible for I have a sneaky suspicion that would have been infinitely more informative. I sincerely can't recommend this museum and that's a rarity as I can almost always find something of value. My best advice is try to hit the Federal Reserve Bank and hope for the best. Maybe someone at the museum will see this and do something to make it a more educational experience for visitors.
