Economics 423
Financial Markets

Summer 2009

Instructor: Lauren Raymer Heller
Class Location: Gardner Hall, Room 308
Office Location: Gardner Hall, Room 406
Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 8:30-9:30am and by appointment

Announcements

Welcome to the Econ 423 class webpage! Here you'll find course announcements, important documents, and other materials to help you succeed this summer. Check back often to be sure you have all of the information you need.

Extended Office Hours: In order to help answer questions that might arise as students prepare for the final exam, the following additional office hours will be held on Wednesday, July 22nd (Reading Day):
- 8:30am-10:30am
- 12:30pm-2:30pm
- Additional times are available by appointment.

Please remember to bring the following items to the final exam. All items are available at the campus bookstore:

A Scantron sheet
A blue book
A basic calculator (Review the course calculator policy if necessary.)

Check out Blackboard to find out your grades and the solutions to all seven homework quizzes. Blank copies of all previous homeworks and quizzes are also available there.

Hanes Hall

*Course Calendar*
Important Dates Thursday, July 2nd - Midterm Exam Tuesday, July 21st - Last Day of Classes Wednesday, July 23rd - Final Exam, 8am	Plans for this week Monday, July 20th - Homework Quiz (In Class) Tuesday, July 21st - Final Exam Review Wednesday, July 22nd - Reading Day (No Class) Thursday, July 23rd - Final Exam, 8am
*Course Documents*
Syllabus Overheads for all classes
Resources by Class Date Thursday, June 18th WSJ Article from class Data used in class Exchange rates from the Treasury EFW Indicators, 2008 World Bank (WDI) data Friday, June 19th Links from class Treasury Direct Wall Street Journal Articles "Finance Reforms Pared Back", WSJ, 6-9-09 "Obama’s Financial Reform Plan: The Condensed Version", WSJ, 6-17-09 Tuesday, June 23rd WSJ Article from class Animated Textbook Figures Figure 4.1 - Bond Market Equilibrium Figure 4.2 - Shifts in Bond Demand Wednesday, June 24th WSJ Article from class Animated Textbook Figures Figure 4.3 - Shifts in Bond Supply Figure 4.4 - The Fisher Effect Figure 4.6 - Effects of a Business Cycle Expansion Figure 5.2 - Default Risk and Risk Premiums Thursday, June 25th Animated Textbook Figures Figure 5.3 - Income Taxes and Municipal Bonds Thursday's Yield Curve from the Wall Street Journal Friday, June 26th Check out the Wall Street Journal's latest "dartboard" contest. Maybe someone from our class can "beat the market" (though you all should know from class why that's unlikely!). Monday, June 29th Check out this neat article from the Wall Street Journal about the history and purpose of the Federal Reserve. Tuesday, June 30th WSJ Article from class Loungani and Sheets - Article on Central Bank Independence(Available via jstor ) Wednesday, July 1st Econ Jeopardy! game slides Monday, July 6th Animated Textbook Figures Figure 8.1 - Equilibrium in the Market for Reserves Figure 8.2 - Response to Open Market Operations Figure 8.3 - Response to a Change in the Discount Rate Figure 8.4 - Response to a Change in Required Reserves Wall Street Journal Articles "We're Asking Too Much of the Fed" - June 21st, 2008 "Fissures Appear at the New York Fed" - July 2nd, 2009 Wednesday, July 8th Wall Street Journal Articles "Should You Buy Build America Bonds?" - June 26th, 2009 "Are Large Banks Now Too Big to Foil?" - July 8th, 2009 Thursday, July 9th "A Triple-A Idea" - April 15th, 2009 Our Econ 423 Portfolio - Results so far! Friday, July 10th Current stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Tuesday, July 14th Econ 423 Portfolio Update. Wall Street Journal currencies page. Thursday, July 16th Listing of exchange rate regimes by country. "A Rising Tide for Asian Currencies" - WSJ, July 11th, 2009. Monday, July 20th Journal article from 1926 about bank failures in Iowa. Note: This article is obtained through jstor, so you may need to be on campus to obtain access. "U.S. Urges China to Buy Mortgage Backed Securities" - Bloomberg, July 13th, 2007. "Mortgage Risk: A Hot Export" - WSJ, September 22nd, 2005. "Signs of Capitalist Life" - WSJ, July 17th, 2009. Tuesday, July 21st Econ Jeopardy! review slides.	Course Objectives by Chapter Chapters 1 and 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapters 5 and 6 Chapter 7 Chapters 8 and 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12