Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy

This is a lecture course that is intended to help you understand the role that financial markets play in the business environment that you will face in the future. It also provides an understanding of the underlying institutions that either help financial markets work well or that interfere with the efficient performance of these markets. This course develops a series of applications of principles from finance and economics that explore the connection between financial markets and the economy. In addition, it will focus on many public policy issues and examine how the most important players in financial markets, central banks, operate and how monetary policy is conducted. The course will have a strong international orientation by examining monetary policy in many countries and possible reforms of the international financial system. We will also focus on current events reported in the financial press by devoting one class hour per day to an extensive class discussion of current economic events and will use the analytic frameworks developed in class help us to understand these developments.