Economics 592: International Monetary Theory and Policy (Fall 2011)
Course objective
This course is a course about international finance in a macroeconomic context. It will focus on the recent financial crisis (2007-2009), its predecessors, its context, its development into a sovereign debt crisis, and things to watch for in the future. Financial crises are ubiquitous and unavoidable. We can usually see them coming but hardly ever can we determine when they will hit. Crises are unpredictable, they destroy businesses, bring down governments, break-up families, and push individuals into poverty.
After taking this course, you will be able to:
- Use (some of) the jargon of finance;
- Differentiate a banking crisis from a currency crisis from a debt crisis;
- List the aftermath effects of a financial crisis on a country's GDP growth and sovereign debt.
- Explain why the discussion of the financial sector in Economics 101 is woefully incomplete and laughably inaccurate;
- Read and explain a country's balance of payments accounts;
- Analyze the recent history of the global financial crisis of 2007-09 in historical perspective;
- Discuss monetary and fiscal policy for an open economy.
View the complete syllabus (.pdf)
Last Update: 9/23/14