Economics of Money and Banking

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Below are the top discussions from Reddit that mention this online Coursera course from Columbia University.

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Taught by
Perry G Mehrling
Professor
and 11 more instructors

Offered by
Columbia University

Reddit Posts and Comments

0 posts • 95 mentions • top 30 shown below

r/investing • comment
84 points • xasmx

The videos are from the Coursera course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

r/Superstonk • comment
13 points • FI_Teal_Giraffe

> So, if these borrowing parties have cash on hand, they don’t need the treasuries. That cash is just as good from a value standpoint.

Most cash is borrowed - it's a liability on the institution's balance sheet. By lending that cash to the Fed, they're able to convert it from a liability into an asset (in the form of treasury bills). This lets them avoid margin calls by making their balance sheet seem healthier than it actually is.

edit: for anyone who wants to understand the mechanics of how modern banking works I highly recommend this Coursera course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

r/investing • comment
7 points • jtmn

Why are there so many comments removed by the mod?

Am curious as well. I watched all of this course:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking/home/week/1

(Really good btw) but am still confused by a lot of stuff.

r/BasicIncome • comment
15 points • spunchy

Become an economist. There aren't enough economists who support basic income. And there aren't enough basic income advocates who actually understand the underlying economics of it.

If you need the basics of economics, start here: https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/HumanitiesSciences/Econ-1/Summer2014/about

One question to ask yourself while going through these course materials is: "Why is the supply curve sloping upward?"

If you already know basic economics, I would recommend starting with this Coursera course:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

The professor doesn't talk about basic income, but he does talk about the nature of money. This gives you the building blocks to formulate a framework for understanding basic income's effects on the overall economy.

Beyond that, Steve Keen is an economist who supports basic income:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Keen

Read his stuff.

Also, look into Post-Keynesian economics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Keynesian_economics

Of particular interest are:

  1. Their argument for a "jobs guarantee." Ask yourself what the difference is between a jobs guarantee and a basic income.

  2. Their position on deficit spending. Ask yourself what effect taxation has on the amount of money the government is able to spend. Does a traditional budget constraint make sense?

Lastly, any time you're learning about a macroeconomic model, ask yourself what would be different if the model didn't assume that people were primarily getting their incomes through the labor market.

r/investing • comment
3 points • rich000

I found this useful (I think). I watched about half of it on Youtube but it looks like it is on a website now:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

I learned quite a bit about the function of banks in the economy, and how a lot of modern policy is done. It is a fairly market-driven process with some levers the Fed can pull to try to tighten things up or loosen them up, but still letting the economy flex on a day to day basis.

Of course, it isn't magic. It isn't like the Fed can just let everybody have all the money they want without consequences. The course (at least the part I've seen so far) is more about how the banks operate, and less about how monetary policy is set. It describes the various ways banks interact.

Maybe at the end it gets more into the policy side. However, I think there is already a lot of stuff on that already. What I found interesting is how something like a discount rate gets translated into all those little economic activities throughout the economy. I like understanding how things work, and not just knowing that the Fed has this number they can change.

r/eupersonalfinance • comment
5 points • Creeyu

As for investing, advice is simple: Always spend less than you earn and invest the difference in low cost ETFs. With a long term investment horizon, I recommend Vanguard FTSE All-World which basically invests in all stock markets proportional to their market capitalization. You do this steadily for 15 years and will most likely be a lot wealthier than your peers who don’t (some people even manage to save 60% of their net income and retire after 11 years of working).

To learn about economics I highly recommend Money and Banking on Coursera (free to audit) since it covers what is actually going on out there and not theoretical models that only work under unrealistic conditions and made my college years as a previously trained banker a living hell.

r/BasicIncome • comment
2 points • smegko

I recommend Mehrling's MOOC Economics of Money and Banking. I get most of my terms from him. The Notes to the lessons are very helpful, you don't even need to watch the videos. I find myself referring back to the Notes quite often ...

r/IndiaInvestments • comment
2 points • introverted-boy

Read macroeconomics by N Gregory Mankiw (paid book) Then do this course : https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking (free audit) Read all papers in the course also

Then read A template for understanding big debt crises by ray dalio (free pdf available online search)

r/EconomicHistory • comment
2 points • Cooperativism62

Someone may be able to give you a more thorough answer than me, the course I took on money and banking mentioned briefly how money worked before banking unions but didn't go into detail. So thank you for the book reference! I can say though that for the US, during the civil war the government in the North did a bank run and pulled out all the gold from the banks so left people on the greenbacks.

People have gone on and off commodity standards for a long long time. China was the first to use paper money, but England had tally sticks. Personally I think you are over emphasizing the "widely accepted" part. During the bank strikes in ireland, people wrote IOUs on everything and everything and it was fine.

I'd like to elaborate a bit more though. Economists following the textbook have a bias for looking at markets, which will lead one to think that money is something widely accepted by many competing firms. But what if there was a giant monopoly instead, is money impossible or useless to a monopoly? No, it still is important to keep track of accounts and debts. Anthropologists studying money aren't too concerned with emphasizing markets or wide acceptance either (Graeber). In times of crisis the most widely accepted money may totally change, and acceptance it very contextual. We often treat all cash as the same in theory, but try using a $1000 note to buy a bag of chips. The cashier will refuse you. Bank Reserves can't be used for consumer goods, but economists still consider them "high powered money".

Concerning your last part on a country using 1000 different currencies at the same time, we are already there. People usually juggle several different coupons, gift cards, and loyalty programs in their pocket at any given time. These can only be used at a few select stores, but they are an accepted means of payment. Some of them match the dollar 1:1 others, like Air Miles, use their own measurement system. Thankfully your stamp card is only used for coffee, so you don't have to measure your gas in stamps at the same time. There's a hierarchy of money and a more common standard of measurement than these. If you're a FX trader or live overseas you do have to juggle a few different currencies in your head at all times though.

That leaves another note on what you mean by "widely accepted". Do you mean inside the country or across the world? There are a few big reserve currencies that most international trade is done in, and then there are "exotic" currencies people won't touch doing international trades. The Kyrgyz som is perfectly fine in Kyrgystan, but good luck using it for international trade.

You can learn a lot about this stuff and the history of central banking here

r/actuallesbians • comment
1 points • kellicanpelican

Blockchain technology will soon break through and be everywhere in our lives, cutting down a ton of beuracracy and waste. I'm a real estate broker and I look forward to being displaced when the market exists purely peer-to-peer. Regarding the national debt, did you know that our national assets are more than double the size of the debt and continuing to grow as well? The biggest liability of the Fed is social security, one of the biggest assets are student loans. I highly recommend this free course The Economics of Money and Banking. https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

r/georgism • comment
1 points • energybased

If you want an engaging answer, then what's the point of supporting your idea with the completely vacuous statement "but that is all bullshit let's be real"? You're just advertising your opaque ignorance. There's no incentive to engage with someone like that.

You should take this excellent free course.

r/AskEconomics • comment
1 points • lgtbt

Check out the Money and Banking course on Coursera from Perry Merhling.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

r/mmt_economics • comment
1 points • Petrocrat

Perry Mehrling's "Economics of Money and Banking" course is great and free on cousera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

And it's through Columbia, so your institution might honor it for credits.

r/investing • comment
1 points • ShogunMecha

I was just about to post this. The course is AMAZING! The textbooks are also really really good.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

I found this course very helpful at work.

r/thewallstreet • comment
1 points • llevar

Go through this course - https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking and you will understand.

r/thecorporation • comment
1 points • 1terrortoast

Not really books.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking There's some literature included though.

Emil Kalinowski and Jeff Snider with their podcast which is also on youtube.

Steven van Metre with his youtube show.

I also watched some Peter Schiff in the beginning but he was too much of a gold bug and dollar doomsayer for me. But I watched his 2006 interview about how the housing market is in a bubble.

r/investing • comment
1 points • Spcymeatball

This video lecture series goes through all that and more. Some prior knowledge on finance and macro econ would help.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

r/SecurityAnalysis • comment
1 points • derpderpderp69

Yeah I was as curious as you were and it's taken me a long time to get a handle on this. First, I would try to understand bond math. I think Khan Academy has stuff on this. I'm not 100% sure how I got a handle on it, but I get it now. But maybe you should answer the question, how much is a 10 year T-bill bought a year ago worth today? Knowing that REALLY helps to understand interest rates and the effects of them changing.

Secondly, I went through this class: https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking/home/welcome and it is basically what you want to learn. Take your time. It's just like learning another language, slowly but surely you will understand more and more. Don't be afraid to look up what a term means and then to commit it to memory, that helps a lot.

It's all very interesting and fundamentally, actually possible to understand in layman's terms, it's just that there are a lot of assumptions.

r/belgium • comment
1 points • chicken__soup

Who do you think holds that lion share of that debt? The ECB, exactly doing the mechanism I described. It's only through that action that there's cash to spend.

If you're interested in these financial mechanics, I can recommend this course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

r/Economics • comment
1 points • last_acnt_got_hacked

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking/lecture/nuSuR/interest-rate-spreads-after-the-crisis

By the 3 minute mark, Perry Mehrling directly answers why the Fed would do something like this. I highly suggest watching.

r/badeconomics • comment
2 points • Firm_Maintenance2009

>perry mehrling,

Awesome you mention him, I just stumbled upon him and have been watching his videos.

It appears his MOOC's are very new and he only has 3 weeks of courses introduced so far (https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking/home/welcome) with week 4 coming in june, or are there older courses you are also referring to?

r/investimentos • comment
2 points • douglpsousa

Têm um curso no Coursera que explica o modo moderno bancário (nao é austriaco) https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

r/Forex • comment
1 points • Cryptochihuahua

Looking for patterns in trading is worthless and retail oriented first prime BS. Your inner BIAS , which as a newbie is probably wrong, will only get reinforced by you looking for patterns to reinforce that BIAS . You won't be even conscious about this behavior, but your account will when it gets nuked.

Dont waste time and move to understand what you are doing in this market and how it truly works. This show is ruled by Central Banks. Understand why, whats truly a currency, how it gets manipulated, research to understand how banks built their positions. Institutional Order Flow, pools and voids of liquidity. Indexes, baskets of currencies, correlation of those. Understand that there are pegged and floating currencies , and that some of those are highly dependant on commodities. Understand the timing on the market. How each currency behaves in each opening session. There is plenty to research on, but please, avoid yourself the downfall of looking for patterns. It will waste your time at the best, and at the worst it will make you think that you know your stuff and then you will proceed to get rekt.

Take a look in this if you have free time while commuting. https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking?

r/Buttcoin • comment
1 points • pavlik_enemy

You really need to take an introductory finance course. This one is pretty good https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

r/FinancialPlanning • comment
1 points • KReddit934

Have you checked out online courses like these..

https://www.edx.org/course/finance-for-everyone-smart-tools-for-decision-ma-2

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

Also, the classic book...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street

r/CapitalismVSocialism • comment
0 points • Shirakawasuna

> Most of what you said was garbage.

Hey look more petty, condescending, dismissive, and vague content. Maybe if I point it out twice you'll take a good, hard look at the point of it.

> Economics is not "simplistic and positive view of capitalism". I recently did this course for fun: https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking I thought it was amazing and very accessible. It's not "simplistic".

Being amazing and accessible is perfectly compatible with being simplistic. In fact, simplistic models help a lot with accessibility.

Can you show me a model from that course that isn't simplistic? Even just one? There are occasionally a few, but they're the vanishing minority.

> Your idea that people go into economics because they're capitalist is also ridiculous. It's exactly like saying that people go into biology because they're "Darwinists". No, people go into biology because they're interested in biology and when they're there they study the material that makes up their modern field. It just happens that modern biology is "Darwinist", and moder economics is "capitalist".

I addressed this two comments ago. You took that opportunity to get petty and dismissive and ignore what I said. If you want to continue this discussion, I'm gonna need you to go back and deal with what I already said. I'm not gonna do the whole, "I'll ignore you and then repeat myself" pattern.

> You might find that reality "condescending", but it is the reality. And it's neither "petty" nor "vague" to point it out.

That's not what I said was petty, condescending, dismissive, or vague.

r/YangForPresidentHQ • comment
1 points • hdkw836f

My understanding is that the VAT only pays for, maybe around a third. The other parts come from program consolidation and economic growth.

Here’s the often cited Roosevelt study on UBI and economic growth. https://rooseveltinstitute.org/modeling-macroeconomic-effects-ubi/

Reversing the 1.5 trillion corporate tax cut might help (aside from the VAT). Corporate tax as a percentage of federal revenue has gone down over time, while the UBI can also be seen as a tax rebate. https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/policy-basics-where-do-federal-tax-revenues-come-from Simplified to: “Who do you think should get the money? The government? Corporations? Or you?” 😊

However, and these are just my own views, there are multiple paths to implementation. We can do them all or a combination to ensure the staying power of UBI. Michael Bennet for example is for a version of UBI that is federal reserve funded. https://www.vox.com/2019/8/22/20827080/michael-bennet-recession-federal-reserve-fiscal-stimulus

Doesn’t mean we go down this route, but it’s an option. We can go down the budget route, but it could be prone to annual budget politics and government shutdowns. Or somehow draft it to be non discretionary spending like social security. All different paths with trade-offs.

But I’m going to take a step back.. and really question “what is money?” Some resources as to where my view comes from: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Note

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

Disclaimer, I’m not pro MMT. They get some things right... but I do believe that deficits do matter. Specifically, how fast the government debt grows and its interest cost matter versus the growth of the economy.
Borrowing for productive gain can be very good.
If we had no government debt, we would not be able to buy US treasuries for our savings. Something to keep in mind.

Anyways, just my two cents, and current thoughts FWIW. Maybe 5 years down the road I’ll learn something new and find out I’ve been wrong all along. 😊

r/CringeAnarchy • comment
0 points • FreeThinkingMan

> And why talking about economics I have not even brought it up.

What are the interests of "jews" and how do they go about obtaining those ends? Those two questions involve understanding economics and finance... If you don't understand those things then you literally can't answer those questions as they usually involve obtaining power through wealth or wealth through power.

> if you are referring to a chapter from that book, international relations, finance, economics, etc are COMPLETELY different then when that fictional book based on a fake fictional anti Semitic book was published.

Forget the fact that the book you written is entirely based on a fictional/literally fake book, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

> The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Russian: Протоколы сионских мудрецов) or The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion is an antisemitic fabricated text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. According to the claims made by some of its publishers, the Protocols are the minutes of a late 19th-century meeting where Jewish leaders discussed their goal of global Jewish hegemony by subverting the morals of Gentiles, and by controlling the press and the world's economies.

> Henry Ford funded printing of 500,000 copies that were distributed throughout the United States in the 1920s. The Nazis sometimes used the Protocols as propaganda against Jews; it was assigned by some German teachers, as if factual, to be read by German schoolchildren after the Nazis came to power in 1933,[1] despite having been exposed as fraudulent by The Times of London in 1921. It is still widely available today in numerous languages, in print and on the Internet, and continues to be presented by some proponents as a genuine document.

Read the rest of that well sourced wiki, you can click the little number after the sentence to see its source.

Again, forget that Ford's understanding and book is based on a fake historical document for one moment. Ford's own book was written in the 1920's. The economy, banks, currency, how power is obtained and maintained are completely different. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Any description of how "jews" acquire money and "dominate" the business world, the affairs of governments, international relations, is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. If you were to understand how literally any of those things work, every jewish conspiracy theory is disproven.

> Sorry for being a simple got who don't think the chosen people should role over mankind.

In order for mankind to be "ruled" there must be some tangible mechanisms that allow this "rule" to exist and these involve how governments function, how banks function, how international economy functions, how economies function, etc. If you were to look and try to argue specifics you would be forced to realize you don't know what you are talking about. Again answer this question, what are the interests of "jews" and how do they go about fulfilling those interests?

If you ever seek to be intellectually honest with yourself, acknowledge what you don't know and educate yourself. These subjects you are discussing, economics, power, business, government are studied and written about by the best and most informed minds alive today because there is much value in knowing the truth as it relates to these subjects. We can read what these best minds have written. Knowledge is power.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

http://www.afsa.org/state-department-recommended-reading

r/CryptoCurrency • comment
1 points • Dux0r

For those looking for financial advice I recommend the DIY approach:

The last two are useful for finding financial subjects and topics you're unaware of or interested in to google for more information, but they also tend to provide useful sources.

r/Edmonton • comment
-1 points • thatinfraguy

https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

Columbia will do it for free.