Money and Banking
Prof. Ranjit S. Dighe
Spring 2010, in Mahar 217
Eco 340-800: MWF 10:20-11:15
Eco 340-810: MWF 11:30-12:25

The most relevant links for the course, including links to the lecture notes and syllabus, are on ANGEL.
Click here to log into ANGEL.


Article to read / In the news:

Mortgage-finance agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be eliminated, says House Financial Services Comittee Chairman Barney Frank
(Wall Street Journal, 22 Jan. 2010).  We will discuss this one in class on Fri., Feb. 12.

Older articles:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's reappointment as Federal Reserve Chairman is up for a vote in the Senate this week.  Alan Blinder, a former Fed governor and Princeton colleague of Bernanke's, makes the case that he should be reappointed (New York Times, 28 Jan. 2010).
-- To read this you will need to subscribe to the online edition of The New York Times.  Subscribing is free and easy -- just click on the article and you will be prompted to subscribe.

President Obama announced a new approach to bank regulation designed to curb the size and risk of banks (New York Times, 21 Jan. 2010).
The new approach is designed to strike at the "too big to fail" problem and the "moral hazard" problem of banks taking on too much risk because they know they are insured.

fed funds rate chart 2008 dec 16
16 Dec. 2008: With the economy in recession and financial markets still in crisis,
the Fed lowers its federal funds rate target to a record-low range of 0 - 0.25%.
This is where it has been ever since (as of 4 Jan. 2010).


(Q:  Hey, where did the lecture notes go?
 A:  They are on the ANGEL site for this course.  They are available only to my current students.)

Review of economic principles, for students in need of a refresher
-- Alas, these notes do not include graphs.  Here, however, are some related notes, courtesy of Prof. John Kane, with multi-colored graphics.  One would do well to take a look at these, too:
---- * Notes on supply, demand, pricing, and profits in a perfectly competitive market
---- * Notes on monopoly pricing and the dead-weight loss from monopoly

Practice quizzes from Spring 2007
Some more old (Spring 2006) weekly quizzes and solutions
Some more old (Fall 2005) weekly quizzes and solutions

In November 2008 the Federal Reserve began paying interest on bank reserves.  James Hamilton explains how and why this matters (8 Nov. 2008).

Related web sites:
More good links:
That stick-figure show: a crudely hilarious and on-target PowerPoint presentation on the subprime mess
"The Crisis of Credit Visualized," by Jonathan Jarvis (2009) -- 11-minute animated presentation

Final exam dates and times:
Eco 340-800: Mon., May 10, 10:30-12:30
Eco 340-810: Wed., May 12, 10:30-12:30


This page was last revised on 6 February 2010.