Money & Banking

Learn how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) work, how they compare to stablecoins and cryptocurrency, and what they mean for banking and monetary policy. Covers payment system evolution, global CBDC pilots, and design trade-offs.

Learn how monetary policy reaches the real economy through interest rate, asset price, credit, exchange rate, and expectations channels — and why transmission takes 6-18 months.

Learn how the international monetary system evolved from the gold standard through Bretton Woods to the managed float. Covers exchange rate regimes, the impossible trinity, capital controls, and the IMF.

Learn about the European Monetary Union, optimal currency area theory, the Maastricht criteria, ECB structure, benefits and costs of the euro, and the European sovereign debt crisis.

Understand the structure of modern banking from Glass-Steagall and the separation of commercial and investment banking to shadow banking, securitization, fintech disruption, and the too-big-to-fail problem.

The Great Depression (1929-1933) was caused by cascading bank panics, Federal Reserve policy failures, and a debt deflation spiral that turned a recession into the worst economic contraction in U.S. history.

Understand the Basel capital framework — Basel I, II & III — including risk-weighted assets, CET1 ratios, leverage ratios, and liquidity requirements that shape modern banking regulation.

Learn how emerging market financial crises unfold through twin crises, speculative attacks, and sudden stops — with case studies of Mexico 1994, Asia 1997, and Argentina 2001.

Learn how financial crises unfold — from credit booms and asset bubbles to banking panics and debt deflation. Includes a detailed analysis of the 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis, systemic risk, the Minsky moment, and post-crisis regulatory reforms.

Asymmetric information creates adverse selection and moral hazard — the two problems that explain why banks dominate corporate lending, why collateral is standard, and why financial systems are heavily regulated.