Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know

Course Overview

An economist and award-winning professor leads you in a panoramic exploration of our monetary and financial systems, their inner workings, and their crucial role in your world. Money and finance play a deeply fundamental role in your life. As a guiding theme of these 36 content-rich lectures, you observe the ways in which economies require efficient and evolving financial institutions and markets to fulfill their potential. You’ll cover vital subjects:

• Central banks, commercial banks, and the Federal Reserve
• Interest rates and interest rate policy
• Bonds and stock markets
• Foreign exchange and international banking

This is a rare chance to gain a grounded understanding of our monetary and financial systems, grasping the elements that directly affect your life and future.

Video Lectures

1. The Importance of Money – 31 min
   Explore the fundamental nature of money as a social contract and its connections to economic well-being.
2. Money as a Social Contract – 30 min
   Discover the evolution of money from barter to fiat systems.
3. How Is Money Created? – 30 min
   Study the invention of paper money and the history of the gold standard.
4. Monetary History of the United States – 28 min
   Learn about the U.S. government’s role in establishing a central bank and national currency.
5. Local Currencies and Nonstandard Banks – 30 min
   Explore nontraditional financial models, including local currencies and microfinance.
6. How Inflation Erodes the Value of Money – 30 min
   Investigate factors governing inflation and its detrimental effects.
7. Hyperinflation Is the Repudiation of Money – 29 min
   Trace the causes and impacts of extreme inflation in various governments.
8. Saving-The Source of Funds for Investment – 32 min
   Understand the relationship between saving and economic growth.
9. The Real Rate of Interest – 28 min
   Differentiate between nominal and real interest rates.
10. Financial Intermediaries – 32 min
    Investigate the role of financial middlemen in facilitating borrowing and lending.
11. Commercial Banks – 30 min
    Learn how commercial banks operate, including money creation through loans.
12. Central Banks – 29 min
    Understand the importance of central banks in controlling money supply and interest rates.
13. Present Value – 30 min
    Learn how to compute the current value of future payments.
14. Probability, Expected Value, and Uncertainty – 29 min
    Explore statistical tools for making financial decisions under uncertainty.
15. Risk and Risk Aversion – 29 min
    Assess individuals’ willingness to accept financial risks.
16. An Introduction to Bond Markets – 31 min
    Study the role of bond markets in channeling funds for government and private entities.
17. Bond Prices and Yields – 30 min
    Investigate the relationship between bond prices and interest rates.
18. How Economic Forces Affect Interest Rates – 28 min
    Understand how saving and investment patterns influence interest rates.
19. Why Interest Rates Move Together – 33 min
    Learn about factors that cause interest rates to adjust together across the economy.
20. The Term Structure of Interest Rates – 32 min
    Study how the Expectations Hypothesis forecasts future interest rates.
21. Introduction to the Stock Market – 30 min
    Investigate stock market functions and how trades are made.
22. Stock Price Fundamentals – 32 min
    Understand what determines prices in the stock market.
23. Stock Market Bubbles and Irrational Exuberance – 28 min
    Explore the psychology behind stock market bubbles.
24. Derivative Securities – 32 min
    Learn how derivative securities function to lower financial risk.
25. Asymmetric Information – 29 min
    Discover how information disparities affect financial markets.
26. Regulation of Financial Firms – 31 min
    Examine types of government regulations affecting financial institutions.
27. Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Reregulation – 31 min
    Trace the events leading to the 2008 crisis and the regulatory responses.
28. Interest Rate Policy at the Fed and ECB – 31 min
    Investigate the roles of the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank in setting interest rates.
29. The Objectives of Monetary Policy – 30 min
    Explore the goals of government monetary policies.
30. Should Central Banks Follow a Policy Rule? – 30 min
    Evaluate the case for predictable versus discretionary policies by central banks.
31. Extraordinary Tools for Extraordinary Times – 29 min
    Learn about the Federal Reserve’s response to the Great Recession.
32. Central Bank Independence – 32 min
    Understand the relationship between central bank independence and economic outcomes.
33. The Foreign Exchange Value of the Dollar – 33 min
    Grasp how currency exchange rates operate and their implications.
34. Exchange Rates and International Banking – 32 min
    Investigate the factors affecting exchange rate movements.
35. Monetary Policy Coordination – 30 min
    Compare coordinated interest rate policies versus individual nations’ actions.
36. Challenges for the Future – 34 min
    Consider key questions facing the world’s financial systems, including the U.S. deficit and the survival of the euro.