Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know

By: Michael K. Salemi, The Great Courses

Narrated by: 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

Great COurse

I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. I have listened to it every morning whilst I drive to work and over the period of a few weeks feel as if I now understand some fundamentals of economics that have alluded me to date. I come from the East End of London, and back in the day when I went to school we were never taught any of this type of information. I run a business which nowadays is no mean feat. CEOs have to understand complex and demanding information. The learning never stops. These courses are really helpful and this particular course is easy to really one of the best I have listened to. The lecturer is a consummate communicator and I am pleased I have invested my time in listening to this course.

I am in awe!

What did you love best about Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know?

I have two positive and one negative comment.1. What an impressive, perfect, and personal, style of speaking Professor Salemi has! I listen attentively, actually feeling he is speaking directly to ME. An incredible rhetorical style. This is the second Great Course I have listened to, the first being Behavioural Economics, and both are brilliantly narrated. I am so impressed.2. The walk-through of Capitalism's inner workings is startlingly clear! The relationship of money and people, of banks and central banks, of bad practices vs. bad people, of choices of lax or over-control, market competition vs governmental oversight... all fascinating and complex issues, which I now better understand.3. My only complaint is a problem I cause! I walk when I listen to audio. So, of course I am not looking over the written information that comes with this series. It's near impossible for me to follow along the mathematics of this course when I am walking through a park, or on a street! My thinking is that there has to be a way to present mathematical data on audio in a very different manner: let someone more interested go to the text afterwards? I wonder if you have ever done some testing of people who listen to math given over audio, and seen how much they catch. I think little, so why do it?

What other book might you compare Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know to and why?

If all Great Courses are like the two I have listened to, this one and Behavioural Economics, well, I am delighted. Both courses are well-presented, both in information and in speaking. I am telling everyone to get these courses, because they provide information that is capable of changing one's life!

Have you listened to any of Professor Michael K. Salemi’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not heard his performance, other than this one. Please relate to Professor Salemi that I feel he is a genius at presenting his material. I am right there with him, every syllable, because I feel he loves his material, and he really wants others to understand. A brilliant thinker and a brilliant speaker. Incredible, sincerely, I am absolutely delighted to be able to hear such important information in such a sincere and effective way.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I don't think economics is going to make anyone laugh or cry. It's a very dry, but fundamental, subject. Your question is suited to novels, not non-fiction, at least in the manner I prefer to learn them. If I am in extreme reaction to non-fiction, then I am reading propaganda, not dispassionately given information. Just the facts, Ma'am.

Any additional comments?

Please ask The Great Courses people to remember that their listeners hear over and over again that stupid fake applause. It is cumulatively irritating. Of course, a signal is necessary to let a listener know when the actual lecture is to begin, but this can be done with a one second, very quiet, beep. Over time we will become conditioned to the little beep. As it is now, I have to hear that downright stupid applause, which, being fake, appalls me. It makes the series seem constructed and takes away from the sense of being given important information in a sincere manner. I have listened to two Great Courses and I really, really, really dislike that fake applause because it IS fake, completely counter to the experience I've had listening to the best speakers teaching me fundamentally amazing material. Mixing fake with real is a very poor design.

Fascinating insight into how "money" works...

If you have ever wondered how money actually works, its history, development, and use - this is the title for you. Well organized with concepts -- even the not-so-intuitive ones -- explained in terms that make sense. Expertly narrated.

Excellent

The content of the course is what makes it worthwhile. The speaker does an excellent job of covering a wide variety of financial topics that are not only useful to know but also made relevant for your life. I only have two negative comments: there are several times that charts and graphs are referenced as well as equations that are difficult to truly understand in audio format and the speaker speaks markedly slowly. The second comment is not a problem because I listen to it at 1.25 speed. I would definitely recommend listening to this if you have any desire to understand more about our financial system.

Very insightful, but not meant for Audible

Definitely originated as a video course; the professor references charts and equations frequently. Still learned a ton, though, and the professor is a great lecturer. Still, I wouldn't recommend this as an audiobook.

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!!

good info on banking

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