Economics 311 Finance
Review: TED Talk by Stanford's Anat Admati, "Seeing through 'the banker's new clothes'"
For interest:
What is Bank Capital? "Ask a Banker: Capital, Capital!" (NPR, May 20, 2013)
What is "the interest rate?" It depends...
Here is a huge vote of confidence in our banking system. Huge. (New York Post, June 30, 2011)
How did we get into this financial mess? Warning: The graphics are crudely drawn, and some of the language is just plain crude.
Magnetar Capital, an Evanston based hedge fund, did a lot to keep the the housing bubble going...and so did a lot to crash the world's economy. Yet more on Magnetar's dealings.
A nice diagram of this process (New York Times)
ATM Fees (Slate, Oct. 6, 2009)
How are banks dealing with tough economic times? Essentially, banks are just businesses, and so to increase their profits, they try to increase their revenues and cut costs.
"One man's ceiling is another man's floor" The house one family loses in a foreclosure, is the house another family now is able to buy. On net, how bad is this?
"'The distinctive function of the banker, ' — say Ricardo, 'begins as soon as he uses the money of others'; as long as he uses his own money he is only a capitalist." — Walter Bagehot (1924)
Banking is not a very competitive industry in many parts of the country, so customers often don't get very many choices. (New York Times, March 7, 2010)
Some pictures of classic historical financial scandals (New York Times, July 18, 2010)
NPR "This American Life" audio programs about how we crashed the financial system.
"The Giant Pool of Money", May 9, 2008 (Short version)
"Another Frightening Show about the Economy", Oct. 3, 2008
"Bad Bank", Feb. 27, 2009 (Bank balance sheets!)
"Return of the Giant Pool of Money", Sept. 25, 2009
"Other People's Money", Oct. 16, 2009
For amusement:
Jon Stewart on the importance having financial firms keep a lot of capital, (The Daily Show, January 22, 2015)
"Financial Sector Thinks It's About Ready to Ruin the World's Economy Again", (The Onion, June 18, 2013)
My favorite song about banking