SYNOPSIS: In this lectures economist and award-winning Professor Michael K. Salemi of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill leads you in a panoramic exploration of our monetary and financial systems, their inner workings, and their crucial role and presence in your world. In 36 incisive and detailed lectures, he gives you a penetrating look at the financial institutions that are fundamental to your life and well-being. Beginning with the colorful history of money, including the monetary history of the United States, you investigate pivotal topics, includingthe crucial role of public confidence in the stability of our financial system;
how money is created by commercial and central banks;
how "Wall Street" and "Main Street" are inextricably intertwined, each requiring the success of the other;
the dramatic history and causes of hyperinflation;
the uses of "local" currencies and nontraditional monetary systems;
the thorny problem of financial firms that are deemed "too big to fail," and why being named "TBTF" gives firms an incentive to engage in risky investments;
the irrational psychology of stock market "bubbles," in which investing becomes speculative gambling; and
why the value of the dollar depends on interest rates elsewhere in the world.
