The last three or four decades have seen a remarkable evolution in the institutions that comprise the modern monetary system. The financial crisis of 2007-2009 is a wakeup call that we need a similar evolution in the analytical apparatus and theories that we use to understand that system. Produced and sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, this course is an attempt to begin the process of new economic thinking by reviving and updating some forgotten traditions in monetary thought that have become newly relevant.
Three features of the new system are central.
Most important, the intertwining of previously separate capital markets and money markets has produced a system with new dynamics as well as new vulnerabilities. The financial crisis revealed those vulnerabilities for all to see. The result was two years of desperate innovation by central banking authorities as they tried first this, and then that, in an effort to stem the collapse.
Second, the global character of the crisis has revealed the global character of the system, which is something new in postwar history but not at all new from a longer time perspective. Central bank cooperation was key to stemming the collapse, and the details of that cooperation hint at the outlines of an emerging new international monetary order.
Third, absolutely central to the crisis was the operation of key derivative contracts, most importantly credit default swaps and foreign exchange swaps. Modern money cannot be understood separately from modern finance, nor can modern monetary theory be constructed separately from modern financial theory. That's the reason this course places dealers, in both capital markets and money markets, at the very center of the picture, as profit-seeking suppliers of market liquidity to the new system of market-based credit.
The first two lectures paint a picture of the monetary system as the essential infrastructure of a decentralized market economy. The second lecture, "The Natural Hierarchy of Money", is a kind of high-level overview of the entire course, so don't expect to fully understand it until you look back after completing the rest of the course. Nevertheless it provides essential orientation for what comes after. Lectures notes for these and subsequent lectures may be found in the very first segment of this module.
What's included
12 videos2 readings
Show info about module content
12 videos•Total 124 minutes
The Big Picture•19 minutes
Prerequisites?•7 minutes
What is a Bank, a Shadow Bank, a Central Bank?•12 minutes
Central Themes•13 minutes
Reading: Allyn Young•3 minutes
FT: The Eurocrisis, Liquidity vs. Solvency•10 minutes
Hierarchy of Financial Instruments•10 minutes
Hierarchy of Financial Institutions•7 minutes
Dynamics of the Hierarchy•6 minutes
Discipline and Elasticity, Currency Principle and Banking Principle•9 minutes
Hierarchy of Market Makers•9 minutes
Managing the Hierarchy•18 minutes
2 readings•Total 20 minutes
Lecture Notes (for download)•10 minutes
Allyn Young•10 minutes
Introduction, continued
Module 2•3 hours to complete
Module details
The next two lectures are meant to introduce a key analytical tool, the balance sheet approach to monetary economics, that we will be using repeatedly throughout the course. As inspiration, first I provide a concrete example of how the approach works by "translating" the Allyn Young reading into the balance sheet language. I follow that with a more systematic introduction to this essential tool.
What's included
20 videos1 reading1 assignment
Show info about module content
20 videos•Total 130 minutes
FT: Quantitative Easing and the Fed•8 minutes
Allyn Young: Money and Economic Orthodoxy•9 minutes
National Banking System Before the Fed•3 minutes
Civil War Finance, Bonds, and Loans•9 minutes
Civil War Finance, Legal Tenders•7 minutes
National Banking System, Origins•6 minutes
National Banking System, Instability•6 minutes
Federal Reserve System, Plan•7 minutes
Federal Reserve System, Actual•7 minutes
FT: Dealer of Last Resort•5 minutes
Reading: Hyman Minsky•3 minutes
Sources and Uses Accounts•7 minutes
Payments: Money and Credit•6 minutes
Payments: Discipline and Elasticity•4 minutes
The Survival Constraint•4 minutes
Payment Example: Money and Credit•10 minutes
Flow of Funds Accounts•10 minutes
The Survival Constraint, Redux•3 minutes
Liquidity, Long and Short•10 minutes
Financial Fragility, Flows and Stocks•6 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Hyman Minsky•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Introduction•30 minutes
Banking as a Clearing System
Module 3•3 hours to complete
Module details
In the next four lectures, we build intuition by viewing banking as a payments system, in which every participant faces a daily settlement constraint (a survival constraint). From this point of view, the wholesale money market plays a key role by allowing banks to relax the discipline of a binding settlement constraint, delaying final payment by putting settlement off until a later date. The relative importance of the various money markets has changed since the 2008 crisis--Fed Funds is now less important--but the conceptual framework remains valid, indeed not only for dollar money markets but also for non-dollar money markets.
Clearinghouse, Private Lender of Last Resort•11 minutes
Central Bank Clearing•5 minutes
Central Bank Cooperation•6 minutes
FT: European Bank Deleveraging•6 minutes
What are Fed Funds?•5 minutes
Payment Settlement versus Required Reserves•1 minute
Payment Elasticity/Discipline, Public and Private•9 minutes
The Function of the Fed Funds Market•9 minutes
Payment versus Funding: An Example•11 minutes
Brokers versus Dealers•2 minutes
Payments Imbalances and the Fed Funds Rate•7 minutes
Secured versus Unsecured Interbank Credit•5 minutes
Required Reserves, Redux•7 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Dunbar•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Banking as a Clearing System•30 minutes
Banking as a Clearing System, continued
Module 4•3 hours to complete
Module details
The next two lectures extend the payments system frame to non-banks by bringing in repo markets, and to the international monetary system by bringing in Eurodollar markets. Here, as in the previous two lectures, the emphasis is on settlement, and so implicitly on so-called "funding liquidity". The last three segments of the Eurodollar lecture, on the failure of two seemingly obvious arbitrage conditions, are meant to motivate the shift to market-making and "market liquidity" in the next module.
What's included
20 videos1 reading1 assignment
Show info about module content
20 videos•Total 131 minutes
FT: The Impact of QE3•3 minutes
Money Market Interest Rate Patterns•4 minutes
What is Repo?•3 minutes
Repo in Balance Sheets•8 minutes
Comparison with Fed Funds•5 minutes
Legal Construction of Repo•10 minutes
Security Dealers Balance Sheet•11 minutes
Repo, Modern Finance, and the Fed•9 minutes
Interest Rate Spreads: Before the Crisis•6 minutes
Interest Rate Spreads: After the Crisis•8 minutes
FT: Ring-fencing and the Volcker Rule•10 minutes
The Eurodollar Market in Crisis•5 minutes
What are Eurodollars?•7 minutes
Why is There a Eurodollar Market?•5 minutes
Eurodollar as Global Funding Market•12 minutes
Liquidity Challenge of Eurodollar Banks•11 minutes
FRA as Implicit Swap of IOUs•5 minutes
Forward Parity, Interest Rates, EH•3 minutes
Forward Parity, Exchange Rates, UIP•6 minutes
Forward Rates are NOT Expected Spot Rates•3 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Bagehot•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Banking as a Clearing System, continued•30 minutes
Banking as Market Making
Module 5•3 hours to complete
Module details
"Market liquidity" is supplied by dealers who stand ready to absorb temporary imbalances in supply and demand by taking the imbalance onto their own balance sheets, for a price. From this point of view, banks can be considered a special kind of dealer, since they absorb imbalances in payment flows. The first lecture is meant to build intuition by using our familiar balance sheet method to make sense of how this all worked in a system much simpler than our own. The second lecture introduces a formal model of the economics of the dealer function, which we will be using throughout the rest of the course.
What's included
16 videos1 reading1 assignment
Show info about module content
16 videos•Total 114 minutes
FT: Depreciation of Iran's Currency•4 minutes
Reading: John Hicks•4 minutes
Bagehot's World, Wholesale Money Market•8 minutes
Economizing on Notes: Deposits, Acceptances•8 minutes
The Bagehot Rule, Origin of Monetary Policy•5 minutes
Limits on Central Banking: Internal vs. External Drain•10 minutes
FT: Asymmetric Credit Growth in Europe•7 minutes
Market Liquidity, Dealers, and Inventories•7 minutes
Two-Sided Dealer Basics•7 minutes
Economics of the Dealer Function: the Treynor Model•12 minutes
Leveraged Dealer Basics•7 minutes
Real World Dealers•8 minutes
Arbitrage and the Assumption of Perfect Liquidity•10 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Hicks•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Banking as Market Making•30 minutes
Banking as Market Making, continued
Module 6•3 hours to complete
Module details
Here we adapt the Treynor model to banks, which we conceptualize as dealers in money, specifically term funding. Like Treynor's security dealers, banks supply market liquidity for a price. But sometimes, in a financial crisis, demand for market liquidity overwhelms supply, and that's where the central bank comes in, as dealer of last resort in money markets. And if the crisis is big enough, as 2007-2009, the central bank comes in as dealer of last resort in capital markets as well.
What's included
16 videos1 reading1 assignment
Show info about module content
16 videos•Total 126 minutes
FT: Money Market Mutual Funds•7 minutes
Banks as Money Dealers, a Puzzle•4 minutes
Security Dealers as Money Dealers, Matched and Speculative Book•11 minutes
Adapting Treynor to Liquidity Risk•7 minutes
Digression: Evolution of American Banking•12 minutes
The Fed in the Fed Funds Market•13 minutes
Return to the Initial Puzzle•2 minutes
FT: Citibank and the SIVs•5 minutes
The Art of Central Banking•4 minutes
Evolution of Monetary Policy: 1951-1987•7 minutes
The Taylor Rule: 1987-2007•7 minutes
Monetary Transmission Mechanism•10 minutes
Anatomy of a Normal Crisis•8 minutes
Anatomy of a Serious Crisis•5 minutes
Should the Fed Intervene or Not?•9 minutes
The Fed as Dealer of Last Resort: 2007-2009•16 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Treynor•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Banking as Market Making, continued•30 minutes
Midterm review and exam
Module 7•2 hours to complete
Module details
The first twelve lectures have introduced all of the main concepts of the course. The midterm exam gives you a chance to test whether you have mastered these concepts before extending them into new areas in the second part of the course. But before you try the exam, first use the review lecture, and the questions from students, to review the main concepts.
What's included
10 videos1 assignment
Show info about module content
10 videos•Total 64 minutes
FT: Trade Credit and the Eurocrisis•6 minutes
Inspiration: The Origin of the Fed•4 minutes
Central Bank Operations, Normal Times•8 minutes
Central Bank Operations, Crisis Times•5 minutes
Settlement Risk, Payments, and Market-making•5 minutes
Q: Standard and Subordinate Coin•3 minutes
Q: War Finance as Financial Crisis•4 minutes
Q: Forward Parity•7 minutes
Q: Payments, CHIPS and Fedwire•12 minutes
Q: Fed Balance Sheet Operations•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Midterm•30 minutes
International Money and Banking
Module 8•3 hours to complete
Module details
The next four lectures extend the "money view" perspective to the larger world of multiple national monies by thinking about the international monetary system as a payment system, and by thinking of banks as market makers in foreign exchange. The first lecture is introductory and conceptual, while the second builds intuition by "translating" Mundell's account of the development of the international monetary system into money view language (similar to what we did at the beginning of the course for Allyn Young's account of the development of the US monetary system).
What's included
18 videos1 reading1 assignment
Show info about module content
18 videos•Total 136 minutes
FT: Autonomy of Bank of Japan•2 minutes
Key Currencies as a Hierarchical System•9 minutes
What is Money? Chartalism versus Metallism•9 minutes
Chartalism as a Theory of Money•2 minutes
Quantity Theory of Money•5 minutes
Purchasing Power Parity•3 minutes
Metallism as a theory of money•5 minutes
A Money View of International Payments, FX Dealers•12 minutes
Chartallism, Metallism, and the Money View Compared•4 minutes
Private and Public Money: A Hybrid System•7 minutes
Hybridity in FX Market-making•6 minutes
FT: Costs of Japan's Monetary Policy•3 minutes
Reading: Robert Mundell•10 minutes
Act 1 (1900-1933): Confrontation of the Fed with the Gold Standard•12 minutes
Act 2 (1934-1971): Contradiction Between Keynesian National Management and the Bretton Woods Fixed Rate System•14 minutes
The Dollar System•7 minutes
Act 3 (1972-1999): Flexible exchange, Learning from Experience•8 minutes
Act 4: Global Financial Crisis, Limits of Central Bank Cooperation•18 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Mundell•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
International Money and Banking•30 minutes
International Money and Banking, continued
Module 9•3 hours to complete
Module details
The next two lectures use the Treynor model to understand how exchange rates are determined in dealer markets. In the second, we confront directly the puzzle we observed earlier in the course, namely why uncovered interest parity (UIP) fails to hold in real world markets.
What's included
15 videos1 reading1 assignment
Show info about module content
15 videos•Total 126 minutes
FT: European Money Market Funds Shifting to Asia and European Core Countries•3 minutes
International Transactions under the Gold Standard•12 minutes
Dealer Model for Foreign Exchange•10 minutes
Central Banking, Defense of Domestic Exchange•9 minutes
Bank of England, Defense Against External Drain•12 minutes
Toward a Theory of Exchange, Without the Gold Standard•10 minutes
FT: High Frequency Trading•5 minutes
Uncovered Interest Parity (UIP) and the Expectations Hypothesis of the Term Structure (EH)•2 minutes
FX Dealers Under the Gold Standard, Redux•5 minutes
Private FX Dealing System•11 minutes
Economics of the Dealer Function, Speculative Dealer•6 minutes
Economics of the Dealer Function, Matched-book Dealer•6 minutes
Digression: Why do UIP and EH Fail?•10 minutes
Central Bank as FX Dealer of Last Resort•16 minutes
Reading: McCauley on Internationalization of Renminbi•10 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Kindleberger•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
International Money and Banking, continued•30 minutes
Banking as Advance Clearing
Module 10•3 hours to complete
Module details
The next four lectures extend the money view to the larger financial world of capital markets, where the price of risk is determined in dealer markets for swaps of various kinds. The first lecture is a kind of conceptual introduction, while the second translates the standard finance account of forwards and futures into money view terms, as key building block for what comes after.
What's included
19 videos1 reading1 assignment
Show info about module content
19 videos•Total 135 minutes
FT: Shadow Banking•4 minutes
Bagehot's World: Separation of Money Markets and Capital Markets•9 minutes
The New World: Integration of Money Markets and Capital Markets•11 minutes
Funding Liquidity Versus Market Liquidity•3 minutes
Digression: Schumpeter on Banking and Economic Development•4 minutes
Payment Versus Funding•6 minutes
Reading: Gurley and Shaw•2 minutes
Financial Evolution: Indirect Finance to Direct Finance•13 minutes
Banking Evolution: Loan-based Credit to Market-based Credit•11 minutes
Preview: Central Banking and Shadow Banking•8 minutes
FT: Argentina in Court to Fight Debt Ruling•5 minutes
Banking as Advance Clearing•6 minutes
Forwards versus Futures•14 minutes
Forward Contracts, Fluctuations in Value and Final Cash Flow•14 minutes
Futures Contracts, Fluctuations in Value and Daily Cash Flows•6 minutes
Cash and Carry Arbitrage, Defined•7 minutes
Cash and Carry Arbitrage, Explained as Liquidity Risk•5 minutes
Cash and Carry Arbitrage, Explained as Counterparty Risk•3 minutes
Cash and Carry Arbitrage, as a Natural Banking Business•3 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Gurley and Shaw•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Banking as Advance Clearing•30 minutes
Banking as Advance Clearing, continued
Module 11•3 hours to complete
Module details
In the modern economy, the price of risk is determined in swap markets that distinguish specific forms of risk, most importantly interest rate swaps and credit default swaps. The Treynor model can be adapted to understand how the price of risk is formed in dealer markets.
What's included
19 videos1 reading1 assignment
Show info about module content
19 videos•Total 131 minutes
FT: Sovereign Debt Crises•3 minutes
Reading: FOMC Report (1952)•8 minutes
Treasury-swap Spread, a Puzzle•11 minutes
What is a Swap?•3 minutes
Why swap? An Example from Stigum•11 minutes
Market Making in Swaps•9 minutes
Money Market Swaps, Example•6 minutes
Life in Arbitrage Land•5 minutes
Treasury-swap Spread, Liquidity Risk or Counterparty Risk?•7 minutes
FT: Internationalization of the Euro•5 minutes
Credit Indices•4 minutes
Fischer Black (1970), Risk-free Security•2 minutes
What is a Credit Default Swap (CDS)?•6 minutes
Corporate Bonds•4 minutes
CDS Pricing•11 minutes
Market Making in CDS•4 minutes
Example: Negative Basis Trade and Liquidity Risk•10 minutes
Example: Private backstop of Marketmaking in CDS•15 minutes
Example: Synthetic CDO as Collateral Prepayment•7 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
FOMC•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Banking as Advance Clearing, continued•30 minutes
Money in the Real World
Module 12•3 hours to complete
Module details
In this final module, we bring the entire course together. These two lectures build on everything that came before, and show how all the pieces fit together into a unified whole. Specifically, the first lecture uses the conceptual apparatus of the money view to make sense of shadow banking as the quintessential form of banking for the modern financially globalized world. And the second lecture shows how the conceptual apparatus of the money view fits with standard economics view and finance view, by drawing attention to dimensions of the world from which the standard views abstract.
What's included
17 videos1 reading1 assignment
Show info about module content
17 videos•Total 134 minutes
FT: Regulation of Shadow Banking•4 minutes
Shadow Banking vs Traditional Banking•7 minutes
Liquidity and Solvency Backstops•7 minutes
Global Dimension•5 minutes
Evolution of Modern Finance•3 minutes
What is Shadow Banking?•12 minutes
Backstopping the Market Makers•8 minutes
Regulation of Systemic Risk•6 minutes
Regulation of Collateral and Payment Flows•10 minutes
Private Backstop and Public•8 minutes
FT: Future of Banking•5 minutes
Three World Views•15 minutes
Economics View: Commodity Exchange•9 minutes
Finance View: Risk•16 minutes
The Education of Fischer Black•5 minutes
Steps From the Finance View to the Money View•8 minutes
A Money View of Economics and Finance•5 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Shadow Banking•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Money in the Real World•30 minutes
Final Exam
Module 13•1 hour to complete
Module details
The previous module operated in effect as a review of the entire course, so if you were able to make sense of those lectures, you are ready for the final. But maybe you first want to have a look back at the second lecture, "The Natural Hierarchy of Money", for a high-level summary of the essential concepts of the money view. For almost everybody, the money view is a new and unfamiliar way of thinking about the world, and it takes a while to get used to it. The purpose of this course is to plant the seed, by demonstrating the value of this way of thinking for making sense of real world problems. Once you are done with the final exam, the real work begins, of using the money view to make sense of whatever real world problems confront you in your own daily life.
What's included
1 assignment
Show info about module content
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Final Exam•30 minutes
Instructor
Instructor ratings
Instructor ratings
We asked all learners to give feedback on our instructors based on the quality of their teaching style.
For more than 250 years, Columbia has been a leader in higher education in the nation and around the world. At the core of our wide range of academic inquiry is the commitment to attract and engage the best minds in pursuit of greater human understanding, pioneering new discoveries and service to society.
"To be able to take courses at my own pace and rhythm has been an amazing experience. I can learn whenever it fits my schedule and mood."
Jennifer J.
Learner since 2020
"I directly applied the concepts and skills I learned from my courses to an exciting new project at work."
Larry W.
Learner since 2021
"When I need courses on topics that my university doesn't offer, Coursera is one of the best places to go."
Chaitanya A.
"Learning isn't just about being better at your job: it's so much more than that. Coursera allows me to learn without limits."
Learner reviews
4.9
1,706 reviews
5 stars
90.09%
4 stars
7.61%
3 stars
1.05%
2 stars
0.41%
1 star
0.82%
Showing 3 of 1706
U
UP
5·
Reviewed on Aug 14, 2017
Probably the best course I've ever taken! The money view approach is very unique in itself. Professor Mehrling's old school way of teaching is very refreshing indeed!
M
MM
5·
Reviewed on May 18, 2020
This course is definitely not for everybody; then the insights are crucial to understand the current economic and financial situation amid the COVID 19 induced crisis
P
PM
5·
Reviewed on Jun 26, 2020
Extremely helpful is understanding the money view of banking system. One of the best courses. A small suggestion - it can be interspersed with more examples especially from the emerging markets.
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.
What will I get if I purchase the Certificate?
When you purchase a Certificate you get access to all course materials, including graded assignments. Upon completing the course, your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.
Is financial aid available?
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.