Week

Date

Topic/Assignment 

(Chapters should be read in their entirety, including Appendices.) Supply and Demand Review: 

The Economist Magazine on De-Criminalizing Drugs  Rand Corp. on Drugs    

Supply-side Prohibition with Inelastic Demand

1

Sept. 28

Why Study Macroeconomics and Financial Institutions?  (Chapters 5-7)   

Keynes’s “General Theory”  Economic Outlook (ppt)

US Income Inequality Trend   Risk MIS-management     Williams on Asset Bubbles

Krugman on Economists Getting it Wrong     And One Who Got it Right    The Conversion of Posner

2

Oct. 5

Aggregate Expenditure & Money Demand:  Chapters (8-11)    Basic Keynesian Model  

Macro Graphs  The US Phillips Curve, 1960-2009 

Results of Finance Game          RISK AVERSION  Presentation on DERIVATIVES   Portfolio Optimization and "Beta"

Probabilities of "Innocent" Timing Luck

Duration Calculations    Deflation Calculations   Present Value Formulas

3

Oct. 12

Aggregate Demand & Supply in Equilibrium:  Chapters (12-14)

       CBO Estimates of Y*, U*   Current CBO Projections   Money Supply, Velocity

4

Oct. 19

Macroeconomic Effects: Chapters (15-16)   Housing Crisis, Debt, and Devaluation  Macroeconomics & the " New Economy"  Cyclically Adjusted P/E Ratio

5

Oct. 26

Debates: Chapters (17-18) 13, 14   International Comparative Advantage   GDP and ‘Twin Deficit’

       (Long-Term Budget Outlook)  (Balance of Payments)  (Fiscal Deficit) Big Mac Approach to PPP   (BigMac.xls)

- Keynes and "Rational Irrationality" (Cassidy on "Why Capitalism Crashes")

  ("The new world disorder" [Keynes and the origins of the "Bretton Woods" Institutions -- the IMF & World Bank], 

appearing in The New Yorker, Oct 26, 1998 v74 n33 p. 198-207.  I have also put this article on reserve.)

6  Indv. Proj. Due

Nov. 2

Comparative Advantage and Development: Chapters (19 and 21)  

7

Nov. 9

Balance of Payments: Chapter 20