Channel logo

Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know

Season 1
Get a penetrating look at the financial institutions that are fundamental to your life. Award-winning Professor Michael K. Salemi investigates a range of pivotal and fascinating topics. Among these: the history of money; how money is created by commercial and central banks; the role of public confidence in the stability of financial systems; the psychology of stock market, and more.
202336 episodesTV-PG
Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy

Prime membership required

Terms apply

Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - The Importance of Money
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    What is money? Consider the fundamental nature of money as a social contract and a social institution that coordinates economic activity. Explore the connections between financial institutions and economic well-being, including the importance of "stable value money" to trade and the critical roles of healthy banks, efficient asset markets, and monetary policy.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  2. S1 E2 - Money as a Social Contract
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Money developed as a medium of exchange to facilitate trade. Here, learn about five stages in the evolution of money. Beginning with barter, trace the rise of commodities as money, the invention of coins, paper money backed by precious metals, and finally our era's "fiat" money, which has value by agreement alone.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  3. S1 E3 - How Is Money Created?
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Study the invention of paper money in the history of goldsmiths issuing paper receipts backed by gold deposits. Then trace the important history of the gold standard, upon which nations pegged the value of currencies, and the reasons the gold standard was abandoned in 1971.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  4. S1 E4 - Monetary History of the United States
    October 31, 2023
    28min
    TV-PG
    The U.S. government's role in financial affairs has been historically controversial. Learn about the two failed attempts in early U.S. history to establish a central bank, followed by the system of "national" banks chartered in the 1860s. Follow key issues surrounding national currency and coinage, leading to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  5. S1 E5 - Local Currencies and Nonstandard Banks
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Finance is not just the business of the wealthy. Here, study nontraditional models for solving economic problems, from examples of local currencies galvanizing local economies to "microfinance" arrangements such as Bangladesh's Grameen Bank, which create highly successful savings and loan programs for the poor.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  6. S1 E6 - How Inflation Erodes the Value of Money
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    This lecture investigates the factors governing inflation, beginning with an inflation history of the United States over the last century. Learn about the correlation between inflation and the consumer price index, and how inflation is triggered by excess money growth. Also, review inflation's detrimental effects and costs.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  7. S1 E7 - Hyperinflation Is the Repudiation of Money
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    The history of hyperinflation offers both a compelling story and a cautionary tale of inflation's damaging effects. Trace the root causes of extreme inflation in governments that finance deficits by printing new money. Then, study key cases of hyperinflation, its "vicious circle" quality, and the inevitable fiscal reform that ends it.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  8. S1 E8 - Saving - The Source of Funds for Investment
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    Explore the meaning of "investment" in economics as increases to a nation's "capital stock" - the equipment, technology, and human resources used in the production process. Then see how investment is made possible by domestic saving and foreign borrowing, and how investment is critically related to economic growth.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  9. S1 E9 - The Real Rate of Interest
    October 31, 2023
    28min
    TV-PG
    Understanding how interest rates work sheds important light on our economy. Study the difference between the "nominal" or agreed-upon interest rate in a loan transaction and the "real" rate of interest. Learn how the "real" rate factors in the rate of inflation to determine the actual cost/benefit of borrowing and lending.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  10. S1 E10 - Financial Intermediaries
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    Financial intermediaries or "middlemen" play an important role in modern economies. Investigate how intermediaries such as commercial banks facilitate borrowing and lending, which provide valuable services to each party. Afterward, study the fundamental types of intermediary institutions, including savings banks, mutual funds, money market funds, and insurance companies.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  11. S1 E11 - Commercial Banks
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    In learning how commercial banks operate, examine the sources from which banks acquire their funds and how they use the funds they acquire, as well as how assets and liabilities function within banks. Finally, study three formal definitions of money, and how banks literally create money in the process of making loans.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  12. S1 E12 - Central Banks
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    Investigate the role and importance of central banks as they provide banking services to commercial banks, focusing on the U.S. Federal Reserve. See how central banks control an economy's interest rates and create money, and how their ability to increase or decrease the money supply makes them the world's most powerful financial institutions.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  13. S1 E13 - Present Value
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Present value is an important formula for computing the current value of payments that will be received or made in the future. Learn how present value is used, in the examples of determining the current value of a savings bond and how much to save per year for future college tuition.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  14. S1 E14 - Probability, Expected Value, and Uncertainty
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    This lecture explores how financial decisions are made in the face of future uncertainty. Using the examples of both a dice game and a real-world business strategy, study the statistical tool of "expected value" as a method of predicting possible outcomes. See how the probability of expected profits influences business decisions.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  15. S1 E15 - Risk and Risk Aversion
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    Economists have developed ways of assessing people's willingness to take on risk in financial decision making. With reference to the "St. Petersburg Paradox," a classic problem relating to odds in gambling, observe how individuals tend to value the dollars they might lose more highly than the dollars they might win.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  16. S1 E16 - An Introduction to Bond Markets
    October 31, 2023
    31min
    TV-PG
    Bond markets play a key economic role by channeling funds from savers to government and private entities that need funding beyond their current revenues. In this lecture, study the various types of bond instruments, including Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. Learn also about important factors underlying the federal deficit and the national debt.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  17. S1 E17 - Bond Prices and Yields
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    In a deeper look at bonds, investigate how secondary markets for bonds operate and what they offer investors. Study fundamental concepts including the "yield to maturity" of bonds and the "holding period yield" in understanding the link between bond prices and interest rates and how economic events change them.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  18. S1 E18 - How Economic Forces Affect Interest Rates
    October 31, 2023
    28min
    TV-PG
    Changes in interest rates have widespread economic effects. Consider interest rates as market prices, set by the current market for credit. Then see how interest rates are determined in the long run by patterns of saving and investment, and in the short run by factors such as government deficits and recessions.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  19. S1 E19 - Why Interest Rates Move Together
    October 31, 2023
    33min
    TV-PG
    The many interest rates in different areas of the economy tend to change together over time. Here, learn about the key factors that govern this, beginning with the ways that interest rates adjust to expected changes in inflation. Observe also how risk in borrowing and lending affects the rate of interest.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  20. S1 E20 - The Term Structure of Interest Rates
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    The formula known as the "Expectations Hypothesis" allows analysts to forecast future interest rates and conditions in the credit market. Understand the intuition behind the hypothesis, study the formula itself as it tracks yields on Treasury securities, and see how it benefits borrowers considering mortgages and loans.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  21. S1 E21 - Introduction to the Stock Market
    October 31, 2023
    30min
    TV-PG
    Stock markets provide individuals the chance to share in the ownership and profits of corporations. Investigate the history of stock markets, their basic functions on behalf of investors, and how trades are made. Finally, learn about the various stock indexes that track the markets, and how mutual funds operate.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  22. S1 E22 - Stock Price Fundamentals
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    What determines prices in the stock market? Approach this question first through the "market fundamentals" model of stock prices, a formula linking a firm's capital, profits, and dividends to its share price. Contrast this with the "capital asset pricing model," which evaluates the rate of return an investor requires.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  23. S1 E23 - Stock Market Bubbles and Irrational Exuberance
    October 31, 2023
    28min
    TV-PG
    This lecture introduces the fascinating group psychology of stock investing. Study the phenomenon of stock market "bubbles," in which prices are driven up without reference to profitability data. Then, grasp the "bubble" mind-set, which triggers speculative buying and selling based only on what others are paying.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  24. S1 E24 - Derivative Securities
    October 31, 2023
    32min
    TV-PG
    Derivative securities play an important role in finance by allowing business decision makers and private investors to lower risk. See how derivative securities are created using underlying products, and study the major types of derivatives and how they function, including stock options, commodities futures, mutual funds, and "collateralized" debt obligations.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy
  25. S1 E25 - Asymmetric Information
    October 31, 2023
    29min
    TV-PG
    Asymmetric information occurs when one party in a financial transaction has more relevant information than another. Learn how this affects financial markets; in particular, the challenges it presents for borrowers and lenders. Also, discover why so few firms issue stocks and bonds, and why banks are so restrictive in regard to loan practices.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Living or buy

Details

More info

Subtitles
None available
Producers
The Great Courses
Cast
Michael K. Salemi
Studio
The Great Courses
By clicking play, you agree to our Terms of Use.