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Announcements
End Part One, Start Part Two!
Today the Final Exam for Part One is posted. Good luck!
But before you attempt the exam, let me urge you to sign up for Part Two if you haven't already. The lecture videos for the first week, which are released today, include a review lecture for Part One that could be helpful for the exam (that's a hint). Sign up at www.coursera.org/course/money2.
Part Two extends the basic ideas of the money view in two directions, to foreign exchange and to capital markets. These extensions involve no fundamentally new ideas, but they are absolutely essential for understanding money markets in the modern financially globalized world. Part Two builds up to two final lectures that present a money view of shadow banking, and connect the money view with modern economics and finance.
All the materials from Part One will remain available to you indefinitely, in case you want to refer back later. But we will be shifting all of the discussion over to Part Two, and will no longer be monitoring Part One.
But before you attempt the exam, let me urge you to sign up for Part Two if you haven't already. The lecture videos for the first week, which are released today, include a review lecture for Part One that could be helpful for the exam (that's a hint). Sign up at www.coursera.org/course/money2.
Part Two extends the basic ideas of the money view in two directions, to foreign exchange and to capital markets. These extensions involve no fundamentally new ideas, but they are absolutely essential for understanding money markets in the modern financially globalized world. Part Two builds up to two final lectures that present a money view of shadow banking, and connect the money view with modern economics and finance.
All the materials from Part One will remain available to you indefinitely, in case you want to refer back later. But we will be shifting all of the discussion over to Part Two, and will no longer be monitoring Part One.
Mon 7 Jul 2014 9:01 PM PDT
Final stretch, and Google Hangout!
We are in the middle of Week 5, which introduces the second key idea of the course, banking as market-making. (The first key idea was banking as a clearing system.) One more week to go in Part One, and then we start Part Two.
For those of you who are finding Part One a bit of a struggle, I remind you that the course is organized so that Part One introduces the fundamental concepts, while Part Two merely extends these concepts to new subject areas. In my experience with the on-campus version of the course at Barnard-Columbia, very few students fully master the fundamental concepts by the end of Part One; it simply takes a while to absorb this new way of thinking. But almost all students fully master the concepts by the end of Part Two. If you stick with it, you will get it!
If you have been following the discussion forum, you know that I was in China last week and met with some students in Shanghai and Beijing. The Shanghai meetup was videotaped, and you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khNYRFQvf18&index=2&list=PLCQFdQ2X3wIF3HKVMFFt-NfoZ_HcwndOt Thanks to Chao Pan for doing such an excellent job organizing it. I arrived in Shanghai, my first time in China, and two hours later I was talking with the students. Welcome to Shanghai!
The success of that meetup has inspired me to try to create something similar online using Google Hangout. This Sunday at 12 noon EST I will be meeting with ten students for a video chat. For this first Hangout, I have chosen ten students who have been contributing to the Discussion Forum. I plan to talk about whatever they want to talk about, similar to the Q&A in Shanghai, and just see where it goes. I'm announcing this session to the whole class because the discussion will be broadcast live, and I'm told there is a Q&A chat feature, so you can ask questions and upvote other people's questions even if you are not one of the ten. (I hope I can make it work!) The link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiLTwFEibYU
As you may know, I have been posting weekly video discussions in which I talk about some issue that has been generating discussion in the forum. My plan for this week is simply to upload video of the Hangout, for those who miss it. It will be called Week 5 discussion.
For those of you who are finding Part One a bit of a struggle, I remind you that the course is organized so that Part One introduces the fundamental concepts, while Part Two merely extends these concepts to new subject areas. In my experience with the on-campus version of the course at Barnard-Columbia, very few students fully master the fundamental concepts by the end of Part One; it simply takes a while to absorb this new way of thinking. But almost all students fully master the concepts by the end of Part Two. If you stick with it, you will get it!
If you have been following the discussion forum, you know that I was in China last week and met with some students in Shanghai and Beijing. The Shanghai meetup was videotaped, and you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khNYRFQvf18&index=2&list=PLCQFdQ2X3wIF3HKVMFFt-NfoZ_HcwndOt Thanks to Chao Pan for doing such an excellent job organizing it. I arrived in Shanghai, my first time in China, and two hours later I was talking with the students. Welcome to Shanghai!
The success of that meetup has inspired me to try to create something similar online using Google Hangout. This Sunday at 12 noon EST I will be meeting with ten students for a video chat. For this first Hangout, I have chosen ten students who have been contributing to the Discussion Forum. I plan to talk about whatever they want to talk about, similar to the Q&A in Shanghai, and just see where it goes. I'm announcing this session to the whole class because the discussion will be broadcast live, and I'm told there is a Q&A chat feature, so you can ask questions and upvote other people's questions even if you are not one of the ten. (I hope I can make it work!) The link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiLTwFEibYU
As you may know, I have been posting weekly video discussions in which I talk about some issue that has been generating discussion in the forum. My plan for this week is simply to upload video of the Hangout, for those who miss it. It will be called Week 5 discussion.
Fri 27 Jun 2014 9:01 AM PDT
New features
Week 2 has just launched, including two new lectures and the first quiz, which is due one week from today.
We are also this week launching optional problem sets as a new feature of the course. The first one is appropriate for this second week, as it gives practice thinking in balance sheets. The reading assignment feature is qualitative and conceptual, while the problem set feature is quantitative and analytical. But, as I have learned in the on-campus version of the course, problem sets help with conceptual clarification as well; there is nothing like having actually to work with balance sheets to sharpen your balance sheet thinking. Since we won't be grading the problem sets, feel free to discuss them in the Discussion Forum.
If you haven't checked out the Discussion Forum yet, let me encourage you to do so. The thread suggesting favorite passages from the Young reading for the first week is particularly worthwhile, and I suggest we make it a regular feature by launching a new thread on the reading for each week. Minsky is the reading for this second week, another dense reading but I hope worth it as a way of getting up to speed on developments in money and finance since World War II. Probably many of you have heard of Minsky, and maybe even read something by him, but there is a lot more to Minsky than just the Financial Instability Hypothesis and, as you will see, I think most people have misunderstood what Minsky was trying to say.
Finally, if you like the course so far, maybe you want to go ahead and enroll in Part Two which starts July 8, overlapping Part One by one week. Go to www.coursera.org/course/money2. Hope to see you there!
We are also this week launching optional problem sets as a new feature of the course. The first one is appropriate for this second week, as it gives practice thinking in balance sheets. The reading assignment feature is qualitative and conceptual, while the problem set feature is quantitative and analytical. But, as I have learned in the on-campus version of the course, problem sets help with conceptual clarification as well; there is nothing like having actually to work with balance sheets to sharpen your balance sheet thinking. Since we won't be grading the problem sets, feel free to discuss them in the Discussion Forum.
If you haven't checked out the Discussion Forum yet, let me encourage you to do so. The thread suggesting favorite passages from the Young reading for the first week is particularly worthwhile, and I suggest we make it a regular feature by launching a new thread on the reading for each week. Minsky is the reading for this second week, another dense reading but I hope worth it as a way of getting up to speed on developments in money and finance since World War II. Probably many of you have heard of Minsky, and maybe even read something by him, but there is a lot more to Minsky than just the Financial Instability Hypothesis and, as you will see, I think most people have misunderstood what Minsky was trying to say.
Finally, if you like the course so far, maybe you want to go ahead and enroll in Part Two which starts July 8, overlapping Part One by one week. Go to www.coursera.org/course/money2. Hope to see you there!
Tue 3 Jun 2014 9:01 AM PDT
Welcome to "Economics of Money and Banking, Part One"
The class is now live and you can get started right away!
I recommend that you start by checking out the syllabus. Every week there are two lectures, one reading with associated study questions, and one quiz that assesses your understanding of the material for that week. (The first week however there is no quiz, to make it easier for students who join the course late.)
Every Tuesday from now on (at noon New York time), two more lectures and a quiz will be released, and every Tuesday (at midnight New York time) the quiz from the previous week will be due. Students who complete all quizzes and the final with an average of greater than 60% will get a Certificate of Completion.
Also on Tuesday, starting next week, I will be producing and posting a new video targeted for this session of the class. Always I will talk about some recent article in the Financial Times and relate it to the current lecture material. I will also use those weekly videos to respond to issues that arise in the discussion forums. The forums are also now live and waiting for you, so if you already have questions or comments just go over there and post them.
Once you have checked out the course, and presuming that you still want to take it, you might also want to enroll in Part Two which starts immediately after Part One.
Again, welcome. I, and my teaching staff, look forward to engaging with you in the weeks to come.
Perry Mehrling
I recommend that you start by checking out the syllabus. Every week there are two lectures, one reading with associated study questions, and one quiz that assesses your understanding of the material for that week. (The first week however there is no quiz, to make it easier for students who join the course late.)
Every Tuesday from now on (at noon New York time), two more lectures and a quiz will be released, and every Tuesday (at midnight New York time) the quiz from the previous week will be due. Students who complete all quizzes and the final with an average of greater than 60% will get a Certificate of Completion.
Also on Tuesday, starting next week, I will be producing and posting a new video targeted for this session of the class. Always I will talk about some recent article in the Financial Times and relate it to the current lecture material. I will also use those weekly videos to respond to issues that arise in the discussion forums. The forums are also now live and waiting for you, so if you already have questions or comments just go over there and post them.
Once you have checked out the course, and presuming that you still want to take it, you might also want to enroll in Part Two which starts immediately after Part One.
Again, welcome. I, and my teaching staff, look forward to engaging with you in the weeks to come.
Perry Mehrling
Tue 27 May 2014 7:46 AM PDT