Econ 201:  Monetary Policy

Link to slides

For interest:

• • Historical hyperinflations - Tim Taylor, February 2, 2019  

  • What is "the interest rate?"  It depends...

  • A Time Magazine history of the Federal Reserve in photos

  • 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

  • Central bank interventions to prevent economic collapse go back as far as 1825 England.

For interest on the Federal Reserve:  

• • You try running the Fed!

• Fed starts to sell off its bailout assets.  (Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2012)

• What did the Fed do during the economic crash of 2008?  Everything!  (New York Times, December 2, 2010)

• Ben Bernanke says some regrettable things

• What happens when the Fed starts "printing money?"  (Slate, November 26, 2008)

• What more could the Fed be doing now?  (Washington Post, July 8, 2010)

• How life was before the Fed?  In 1907, J.P. Morgan got us out of a financial crash, since then it's usually been the Fed who organized these fixes, but not always.

• A founding father of the Federal Reserve  Secretary of the Treasury William McAdoo (1863-1941). He doesn't get nearly enough credit.

• Real interest rates can even be negative  Some government bonds have a "real interest rate", that is, they pay an interest rate that rises as inflation increases, or falls as it falls.

• What is this "Maiden Lane" item on the Fed's balance sheet?  It's...not...good...not good at all.  (NPR's Planet Money, April 6, 2010)

• Some "famous "Fed flubs"  (CNNMony, May 2011)

For amusement:

• Scooby doo!

  • What is Money?  (The Onion)

  • Where's George?  (An NU video tracking how dollar bills flow around the country)

• The European Central Bank has produced an information kit entitled "Price stability: why is it important for you?" for young teenagers and teachers, including an eight minute cartoon (which is great).  "Wait a minute. I know you. You are inflation!"

• People flipping out about the Federal Reserve

  • Mad Money's Jim Cramer flipping out in August 2007  "Bill Poole is ashamed!"

  • Jim Cramer after he took his medication  He's still pretty out there though.

  • Former Congressman (and sometimes presidential candidate) Ron Paul  He's no fan of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, and tells him off to his face. (February 27, 2007)

• We would be way better off if we would get rid of the penny.  

• Monty Python's "The Money Song"

• Randy Newman's "It's Money that Matters"