We learned so much in course that applies to our everyday lives and the condition and operation of the country that I actually wish they had taught it back in high school. There was so much subject matter covered that it is difficult to narrow what I learned down to just three things. The textbook and supporting documentation and discussion pertained to the financial system. The financial system is basically how the money moves through our economy. Funds flow primarily through the financial markets which our book defines as; “Markets in which funds are transferred from people who have excess available funds to people who have shortage”. (Mishkin, 2010) The key is to keep the funds productively working in the economy. I will focus broadly and say that the three most important things I learned in this course were about money & financial system itself, the institutions that fuel the system and the Central Banks. Let’s start with what money is and what it does. Money is “anything that is generally accepted in payment for goods and services.” (Mishkin, 2010) Money needs to have value to the people within a society in order to fill this role. One of the primary roles of money is to be used as payment for goods or services; it also reflects value or price levels and retains value over time. Currency is the actual form of the “acceptable” money. Money that is made of a valuable commodity, such as silver or gold, is called commodity money. As is typical of economies as they mature, the United States has moved away from commodity money to paper money. The money is backed not by the value of the commodity, but by a promise for payment. The flow of funds happen in the financial markets as mentioned above. This isn’t a plac... ... middle of paper ... ... shock waves through the world’s financial markets. We more quickly hear and react to financial news, whether good or bad. As I said in the intro, it’s difficult to limit what we learned to three items. We have found that there are a great many factors that contribute to the functioning of the financial system and they all seem to overlap as well. It is also difficult to prioritize them. I do feel that the role of the Central Banks is important as they seem to provide the foundation on which the rest of it sits. I feel that the information within this course should be something that is taught at the high school level. People need to have a basic understanding of how the financial system works. It impacts them everyday. Works Cited Mishkin, Frederic S., (2010) The Economics of Money, Banking & Financial Markets 9th Edition, Boston, Addison-Wesley Publishing
It made benchmark interest rate remains low. Then the excess liquidity made the asset bubble. Finally, the burst of asset bubble thumped the financial system. (Pierpaolo,B and Woodford,M, 2003)
What is economics? On the basis of most college courses in economics, it would be most appropriate to say something about supply and demand, those familiar curves that mysteriously set the price of goods and services. Close in relation to this are the "marginal propensity to consume" and various graphs that demonstrate the relationship between savings and investment, as mediated by the prevailing interest rates, or price of money. Contemporary economists are also fascinated by "the multiplier effect," the fact that the "effective money supply" is always much larger than its foundation in reserves, such as gold. The answer, in other words, is always that money lies at the heart of economics. Value equals price; that is, the value of anything is determined by market conditions. In thi...
Money makes exchange much easier, because people can trade their goods for money and use the money to buy other things. In the Bible money was silver or gold, a precious metal, and America was on a gold standard throughout most of her history. In 1933 we shifted to a silver standard and in 1968 our silver certificates were replaced with Federal Reserve Notes (Remy, 2008). Today’s paper money is not backed by anything except the government’s promise that it is good. Money with no precious metal backing allows the central government to spend more than it collects in taxes, because the Federal Reserve Board can print new money, thus increasing the money supply, anytime there is a need. This is what causes inflation and is one way that the Federal Reserve Board has overstepped Biblical principles in economic policy. Greg Anthony writes that “one of the Biblical signs of a nation backsliding is the condition of its currency and the degree of honesty in its weights and measures” (Anthony, 1988, p. 28). When the money supply is increased, either through printing more money or credit-expansion, the purchasing power of the dollar falls, and businesses must increase the prices they charge to keep up with their own higher costs. Inflation encourages debt, deceives people about pay increases and future wealth accumulations, is a hidden theft tax, and decreases capital available for
Metzler, Allan H. A History of the Federal Reserve, Vol I and II. University Press Books, 2002
Market crashes are not a new phenomenon but the most disturbing fact about the financial crisis of 2008, was that it was self-inflicted. What started as a credit crunch during the early 2006, turned into a fully-blown recession by mid-2008.The world’s financial system received a huge shock in September 2008, with the collapse of The Lehman Brothers, one of the biggest global investment banks [3]. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008, was undoubtedly the worst economic slump since the Great Depression of 1930. While the bankers and financers hold the responsibility for the global economic turmoil, the business schools have also, being partially responsible, faced criticism.
Once high school ends, most students progress to college after a year or two from graduation. Due to all of the expenses for textbooks and etc., the student might realize that they don’t comprehend what to conserve or spend their money on to get through their years of college which will leave them clueless on what to do next. With situations like this that might occur, all high school students should take a financial literacy class as part of the mandatory course in order to get a diploma. With a numerous amount of students not having enough knowledge about how to manage their money carefully, presumably they’ll have trouble living their life as an adult. Taking a financial literacy class would help students stay out of debt, they’ll be prepared for their future, and they would recognize the discrepancies between wants and needs.
MacEwan points out there are three areas which should be addressed if we want to get a handle on our financial crisis. High school seniors shoul...
I found several helpful strategies throughout this course but the ones I found to be most beneficial were the ones on setting goals and managing financial resources. By identifying my specific goals and then divi...
The Banzai Financial Literacy course, taught me many thing that I will, and will not use. One thing that I found useful, was the implementation of jars to keep track of and manage my money/funds. I found this important, because you need to magage your expenses properly, so that your have the correct amount of funds for certain scenarios that you may or may not encounter. One other thing that I found useful, was learning to use my checking account rather than my credit card. This was a good tip, because, with a credit card you can go into debt, whereas with a checking account, you can only use the money you have. But, there were also tips that I found not so useful from this activity.
Binhammer, H. H. & Peter S. Sephton. Money, Banking and the Financial System. Nelson, 2001.
As the market was crowded with inexperienced but feverishly eager investors who lacked capital reserves, the falling prices produced a shock effect...
The second lesson concentrates on the importance of financial literacy. There is one rule to follow so as to understand financial literacy – “Know the difference between an asset and a liability, and buy more assets.” In order to do this, you need to be able to understand and comprehend numbers instead of jus...
Paper money is more complex. From 1900 through 1971 (with the exception of during World War I), the US dollar was backed by gold, meaning its value was legally defined by a certain weight of the metal. That ended in 1971, when Richard Nixon shocked the world by breaking the link to gold and allowing the dollar’s value to be determined by trading in the foreign exchange markets. The dollar is valuable not because it’s as good as gold, but because you can buy goods and services produced in the United States with it—and, crucially, it’s the only form the US government will accept for tax payments. Among the Federal Reserve’s many functions is allowing the issuance of just the right quantity of dollars—enough to keep the wheels of commerce well greased without slipping into a hyperinflationary crisis.
Personal Finance is a class I’ve wanted to take for a while now. My major is Finance not because I want a career in finance but more to learn about finance for my own personal situation. This class taught me so much! During this class I was able to evaluate my financial situation and set financial goals for myself. The four topics that helped me the most were emergency savings, buying a car, purchasing a home, retirement, and estate planning. After completing this class I have a better understanding of these topics and how to achieve my financial goals.
College students take a lot of time to successfully manage their personal finance. The ability to manage personal finances has become very important in our world today. Hira (2009) states that financial education is much demand in a wide range of entities including banking companies, government agencies and community interest groups, universities, schools and other organization. It measures the capacity of the individual on how to cope a problem related to personal finance.