Global Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences

In this class, students learn about the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007-2009, its causes, and aftermath. We will begin with some history about the creation of the Federal Reserve and the role of lender of last resort. We next study the Great Depression and economic lessons learned from that crisis. We then move to the early 2000s and the underlying causes of the GFC. We study the events of the crisis and the unprecedented policy actions taken by the Federal Reserve and US Treasury to contain the crisis and prevent another Great Depression. Prerequisite: ECON 101D (or ECON 21 & 22 or ECON 23 & 24) and ECON 201D