Free course on money and banking
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2015 1:48 am
I signed up for this free course (starting next month) after seeing this recommendation on another forum. Has anyone else done this or have an opinion about it?
Starting in May, Coursera will be running (for the third year) an online course on Money and Banking, taught by Professor Perry Mehrling of Barnard College, Columbia University. Mehrling is Director of Education Programs for INET, the Institute for New Economic Thinking.
https://www.coursera.org/course/money
If anyone is interested in money and banking and has a 2-4 hours a week to spend, I'd highly recommend it. The course is in two parts, the first part covers payment systems and money markets, and the second covers foreign exchange and capital markets. The format is 1-2 hours of video lectures each week, plus a short reading (typically a book chapter or similar, supplied as PDF). The course avoids theory and abstraction, and examples are demonstrated entirely through balance sheet T-accounts. While an interest in economics is a pre-requisite, there's no need to know any formal economics (some short equations make an appearance in part two of the course, but part one doesn't require anything in the way of maths knowledge either). Mehrling regularly contrasts the banking systems of the late 19th century (Lombard St and the gold standard) and today to highlight similarities and differences, and while the contemporary focus is on the US Federal Reserve, I found having the historical focus on the Bank of England helped keep the course relevant from a UK perspective. There is a course specific forum where any questions can be addressed, and numerous online teaching assistants able to help.
All in all, I'd say this is the single best resource I've encountered in getting a good understanding of how money and banking work. I can't recommend it highly enough.
http://www.coursetalk.com/providers/cou ... g-part-one
http://www.pragcap.com/perry-mehrlings- ... tem-course