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Columbia University

Economics of Money and Banking, Part One

Columbia University via Coursera

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Overview

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The last three or four decades have seen a remarkable evolution in the institutions that comprise the modern monetary system. The financial crisis of 2007-2009 is a wakeup call that we need a similar evolution in the analytical apparatus and theories that we use to understand that system. Produced and sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, this course is an attempt to begin the process of new economic thinking by reviving and updating some forgotten traditions in monetary thought that have become newly relevant.

Three features of the new system are central.

Most important, the intertwining of previously separate capital markets and money markets has produced a system with new dynamics as well as new vulnerabilities. The financial crisis revealed those vulnerabilities for all to see. The result was two years of desperate innovation by central banking authorities as they tried first this, and then that, in an effort to stem the collapse.  

Second, the global character of the crisis has revealed the global character of the system, which is something new in postwar history but not at all new from a longer time perspective.  Central bank cooperation was key to stemming the collapse, and the details of that cooperation hint at the outlines of an emerging new international monetary order. 

Third, absolutely central to the crisis was the operation of key derivative contracts, most importantly credit default swaps and foreign exchange swaps. Modern money cannot be understood separately from modern finance, nor can modern monetary theory be constructed separately from modern financial theory. That's the reason this course places dealers, in both capital markets and money markets, at the very center of the picture, as profit-seeking suppliers of market liquidity to the new system of market-based credit.


Syllabus

Introduction
  1:  The Four Prices of Money
  2:  The Natural Hierarchy of Money
  3:  Money and the State:  Domestic
  4:  The Money View, Macro and Micro
Banking as a Clearing System
  5:  The Central Bank as a Clearinghouse
  6:  Federal Funds, Final Settlement
  7:  Repos, Postponing Settlement
  8:  Eurodollars, Parallel Settlement
Banking as Market Making
  9:  The World that Bagehot Knew
  10:  Dealers and Liquid Security Markets
  11:  Banks and the Market for Liquidity
  12:  Lender/Dealer of Last Resort

Taught by

Perry Mehrling

Reviews

4.9 rating, based on 15 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Economics of Money and Banking, Part One

  • Jason Galloway
    This is an excellent class to really understand money and banking. Prof. Mehrling is an excellent teacher who looks past abstract Keynesian vs. monetarist thinking and gets to the core of how banking really works. That being said, understand that this is not a casual "survey" course; if you're going to get the most out of the class, you have to work with the material.
  • A beautifully crafted course. It offers a different-old-new way to see the money market and the work of the central bank. The lessons are clear and at the end you just would like him to go on.
  • Anonymous
    The best MOOC i had over 27. Excellent way to explain the crisis of actual economic models, and proposes a new approach through the money view. A sure candidate for nobel Prize i few years....Dont miss it
  • Uros J
    Really great course, great profesor. I studied economics and this course was great for me since we get a different, more realistic view of the money market and the banking sector.
  • Nokour Abakar
    This is the most interesting and well prepared MOOC course I ever took before. I took a half dozen of classes so far in the field of Finance, Economics and English language, but this course stands above all. Thank you Professor.
  • Anonymous
    Extremely interesting, i would recommend also Part II. Very clear explanations, and thougthful readings.
  • Anonymous
    Very good to understand how money works in contemporary banking system.
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  • Sebastien GOODWIN
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    Herman Starzhynski

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