ECO-402-20, Money and Banking

INSTRUCTOR: Lawrence Beyer

SCHEDULE/DAY/TIME: SEM/Thursday/6:00 - 8:45 PM, September 6, 13; 27; October 4, 18, 25; November 8, 15, 29; December 6. Exam: December 13

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The course focuses on interactions between the financial system and the wider economy; examines financial markets, banking operations, Federal Reserve tools, and the conduct of monetary policy; tracks a variety of economic indicators and analyses economic, financial and international data to predict the actions of the Federal Reserve in the near future.  This is a web-assisted course.  Homework and on-line quizzes will be received and delivered through Joule.  There will be on-line forums available for the group project.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES/OUTCOMES:

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

-Describe the operation of the financial system in the U.S. Economy;

-Discuss basic ideas behind the present-value formula, the structure of interest rates, and the real interest rates.

-Compare interest rates on short-term bonds with those on long-term bonds to see how the relationship between such interest rates reflects economic events.  Evaluate the effectiveness of the yield curve to forecast recessions.

-Describe the structure of the Federal Reserve (Fed).

-Discuss the operations of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and how it conducts monetary policy.

-Demonstrate how the money supply process works and examine the markets for reserves; show how the Fed influences the money supply on a day-to-day basis.

-Discuss how the Fed uses monetary policy to stabilize the economy over the course of the business cycle

-Retrieve and analyze data on output, unemployment, and inflation to examine the trade-off the Fed faces between the inflation rate and the unemployment rate.  Demonstrate why that trade-off differs in the short and the long-run.

-Use economic indicators to predict the workings of the economy in the near future.

TEXTBOOK:

M&B, by Dean Croushore, 2nd Edition, ISBN-13: 9781111823351.  Cengage.

GRADING POLICIES/COURSE EXPECTATIONS:

The grading process will be based on the following deliverables and is designed to enhance learning opportunities of a variety of learning styles: 

Attendance and participation                                    

Quizzes          

Homework                                         

In-class tests                                                                                                   

Group presentation                                                                

Newspaper and Magazines: You are encouraged to read a daily financial newspaper and/or a weekly magazine. The Wall Street Journal and the Economist are examples of newspapers and magazines that will help you in keeping up-to-date with world affairs and provide an opportunity to test the "classroom" principles in the harsh glare of economic reality.