Help
This course has an assignment that is due by 11:55 pm Central Standard Time on Wednesday night of the first week of class. Failure to complete this assignment will result in your removal from the course for non-participation.

Big Blue Button Meeting Requirements

This is a hybrid course that includes “live” synchronous class meetings one night a week during scheduled class time using the Big Blue Button web conferencing system. Students are required to log in and attend the synchronous meetings. Students will need access to a computer or tablet with reliable high-speed internet connection, along with a webcam, microphone and either speakers or headphones.

The remaining credit hours for the course will be fulfilled through online assignments completed in myCMU. Students must participate in the live meetings and online assignments to be successful in this course.

Students will access Big Blue Button meetings by clicking “Online Meetings” located on the left side menu of this course in myCMU. To participate in the meeting click on the appropriate weeks link during the scheduled time and day of the course. Recorded sessions can also be accessed here.

Textbooks

Required:

Connect Access to Cecchetti & Schoenholtz’s Money, Banking, and Financial Markets, 6th edition, McGraw-Hill. (2020) ISBN: 9781264058679

Connect Access includes an ebook of the textbook. If you want a physical textbook, you can rent or buy a used copy – but you must still have Connect access. Only the Connect access and eBook are required.

There is a two week free trial. This means you will have access to the textbook on day one of the course.

Recommended:

A subscription to The Wall Street Journal. Student subscriptions are available at a very modest price (recently they have offered student subscriptions for $4 a month.)

Some other helpful hints:

  • Instructor will provide an address to sign up for the Connect Class Access on the first day the course opens. See Resources and Materials when available.
  • Make sure you purchase a new Connect Access card. Connect Access cannot be reused.

 

Catalog Course Description

Examination of the role of money, financial markets, and financial intermediation in the American economy, with a particular focus on commercial banks.  Includes an in-depth look at the money supply process and the Federal Reserve System.  Prerequisites: EC201 and EC202.

 

Course Overview

The focus of this course is the American banking system and the different functions that it performs in the economy. We will look at two of these functions: financial intermediation and money creation. Financial intermediation involves the shifting of control over a society’s resources from people who currently have more income than they want to spend (savers or lenders) to people who want to spend more than they currently have (borrowers). Although banks are only one component of this process, the role that they play in it is a crucial one. The banking system also plays a key part in the process of money creation. We will develop a detailed model of the money supply process and consider how complications in the process affect the ability of the Fed to control the money supply. We will also take a careful look at the Fed’s tools of monetary policy. 

NOTE: Both EC201 (Macroeconomics) AND EC202 (Microeconomics) are listed as prerequisites for this course.
 

Course Objectives

Students who successfully complete this course will:

  1. understand the role of financial intermediaries in the American economy;
  2. understand the role that banks play in the process of financial intermediation;
  3. understand the crucial importance of a stable monetary system to the functioning of a modern economy;
  4. understand the complexities of the money supply process and the role that the Federal Reserve System plays in it;
  5. exercise and improve their analytical and writing skills;
  6. consult a variety of sources, including the Internet, to keep up with new developments in the field of Money & Banking.