Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know

De: Michael K. Salemi, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Michael K. Salemi

Money and finance play a deeply fundamental role in your life. Now, let an expert professor lead you in a panoramic exploration of our monetary and financial systems, their inner workings, and their crucial role and presence in your world.

As a guiding theme of these 36 content-rich lectures, you observe the ways in which economies require efficient and evolving financial institutions and markets to fulfill their potential. In building a full view of our financial system, you delve into these and other vital subjects: central banks, commercial banks, and the Federal Reserve; interest rates and interest rate policy; bonds and stock markets; and foreign exchange and international banking.

Across the arc of this lecture series, you'll tackle key topics that shed light on the functioning of our financial system as a whole. You study the critical subject of inflation and its relationship to the consumer price index and to excess money growth. You'll investigate the causes and implications of the federal deficit and the national debt. In the international arena, you'll learn about the implications of trade deficits in global economic relationships and the question of monetary policy coordination between nations, weighing the significant benefits to the global economy of cooperation between central banks.

This is a rare chance to gain a grounded understanding of our monetary and financial systems, and to grasp the vital elements of finance that directly affect our way of life, our national concerns, and your own life and future.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

Good info but listening not enough. Need visuals

I bought this course after having listened to or read a number of books on economics. I have been trying to find the person who has some idea of what we should expect in the future. A fool's errand? Not as much as one may think!
The course is about as comprehensive on the subject as a reasonable person could expect. He begins with the basics: what money is, and then proceeds gradually to the point where one cannot keep up without being able to look at the visual aids he refers to. Beware, this is a deeper subject than you may have thought.
My only real criticism is that when he mentions the sub-prime mortgage collapse he seems to be obtuse about what the prime mover of the fiasco was, namely government pressure to lend money to folks who could not afford it. He mentions this not at all. He gives no mention to what I saw on a firsthand basis: Persons who became mortgage brokers almost overnight during the early 2000s, who had money to loan to anyone. "If you know someone who wants to buy a house, send them to me. I have people who want to lend money!" they spouted cheerfully. I thought it peculiar at the time but after the collapse came I learned that most of the badly written mortgages were sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, quasi-government organizations who took any and all paper off the hands of these unscrupulous agents. These ubiquitous brokers generated mortgages solely for the fees they could charge, only to unload the risk on the taxpayers via Freddie and Fannie. To neglect this aspect of the collapse is hardly commendable. It leaves the student uninformed of something very important. Is there a political allegiance here? I wonder.
Nonetheless, he redeems himself at the end where he states flatly that without a policy change a crisis IS coming. He does not elaborate but seems to assume that his listener now has enough information to reach that conclusion on their own. I guess that's so. This prof. is one of many economic gurus who see trouble on the horizon.
What everyone should know? Indeed!

Yawn. . .

Would you try another book from The Great Courses and/or Professor Michael K. Salemi?

Not if he is the reader/presenter. I'll bet his students struggle to stay awake in the classroom. The material he presents is valuable, albeit not particularly new or unique, but his presentation is sorely lacking

Would you ever listen to anything by The Great Courses again?

Yes. Great concept.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

See the headline for my review. . .

Listen Carefully for Key Trends

Had to turn up the speed to 1.5 because it was slow.......in performance. Key trends and insights into Capitalism were found in the lectures and history of money was exceptional. Lots of facts and spot on for capturing the Great Recession economic recovery and how Americans, yet again failed to keep greed from entering the world of money and investment.

Solid

As an audio presentation, sounds materials. Difficult to follow the documents (which are provided.) The presentation and information is outstanding, easy to understand. Wonderfully talented educator!!

Everyone Should Know This.

Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know by Michael K. Salemi
The Great Courses: Business & Economics
18h 6m narrated by the author, 601 pages

Genre: Economics, Nonfiction, Business, Finance, Personal Finance

Featuring: Banks, Money History, Social Contracts, Main Street vs. Wall Street, Classroom Lectures, Accompanying PDF - 276 Pages, Suggested Reading, Questions

Quotes: "Most of us like money and believe we should have more of it. Economists think of money as an agreement—a social contract— among individuals that, if kept, makes our economic lives better and allows our economies to grow more rapidly. In this course, you’ll learn much more about money as a social contract, as well as such topics as inflation and hyperinflation; financial institutions; stocks, bonds, and derivative securities; and central banks, exchange rates, and monetary policy coordination among developed nations. The last lecture considers the challenges that confront our monetary and financial institutions in the coming years."

Rating as a movie: PG

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My thoughts: 📱3% 32:50 Lecture 2: Money as a Social Contract - This is like being in class for real. You may not be entertained, but you'll be educated.
📱17% 3:01:29 Lecture 7: Hyperinflation Is the Repudiation of Money - This is very informative and even interesting, but I'm not taking notes.
📱31% 5:31:50 Lecture 12: Central Banks - This, surprisingly, isn't boring at all.
📱47% 8:28:57 Lecture 18: How Economic Forces Affect Interest Rates - OK, some of these lectures are boring, and some of them are very interesting. It seems that I don't have a problem with explanations and history, but I get a little irritated by too much math.
📱52% 9:29:26 Lecture 20: The Term Structure of Interest Rates - Blah! More math and this time, debt and credit, too. Bedtime. I need to stick to the morning with this one.
📱78% 14:03:04 Lecture 29: The Objectives of Monetary Policy - The mortgage crisis explanation was very good. It was followed by the interest rate policy at the Fed and ECB and it was about to get very good, but my husband woke up and now it's time for breakfast and Survivor. Reading the PDF while listening made a huge difference. This book isn't made for the car.

I'm so glad I took the time for this book. It was very informative. This is is definitely information everyone should be aware of. I'm considering reading more from this series. It features 36 thirty minute lectures.

Recommend to others?: Yes. Don't be intimidated by the size or language. They really break it down.

good info on banking

I really liked the insite given. especially the pros for the fed, as much as we didn't trust them...

Excellent

Perhaps I should say "excellent" as long as you are interested in a lot of depth. I was and found it absolutely fascinating.

Educational

Nicely delivered except when the narrator is describing equations or visual material to his audience. The last several chapters are a dated but interesting perspective on the 2008 financial

Good but American

This is a great learning resource, with a too large focus on the American system

Great course despite being an audiobook

In the latter parts of the course there are more and more references to graphs an formula.
You could get more out of this course if you could see those but Salemi communicates the points verbally well enough in my opinion.
Recommended.