ISI - ECON 3430 - Money and Banking

Course Description

Money and Banking covers the influence of money and banking on economic activity; influence of monetary policies to achieve society’s economic goals. This course examines an important branch of economics called Money and Banking, which includes the study of financial institutions, the financial markets, the role of money in the economy, and the impact of monetary policy. The focus of this branch of economics is on the role that money plays in the lives of individual decision makers, on government policy, and on the economy as a whole.

The banking industry in the United States has undergone massive changes since the 1970s. Not since the Great Depression have so many institutional reforms been enacted. The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 began a process of deregulation of banking, arguably the most heavily regulated industry in the United States. Deregulation provided a series of challenges to the banking industry that shook it to its core. The first challenge was the savings and loan crisis (1980– 1992), which led to the near collapse of the entire savings and loan industry and cost the taxpayers about $150 billion. Other 1980s crises included the 1980–1982 recession; the Third World debt crisis (where financial institutions of the industrialized world loaned many poor nations nearly a trillion dollars, for which many nearly defaulted); the 1987 stock market crash; the sharp rise of the U.S. national debt; and the melt-down of the junk bond market in the late 1980s.

Learner Outcomes

1. Introduce the student to economic thinking and analysis
2. Acquaint the student with economic and financial concepts, terminology, and logic
3. Familiarize the student with the tools needed for examining important economic variables such as real output, inflation, unemployment, and interest rates
4. Introduce to the student the basics of the U.S. financial system, types of financial institutions, methods of financial intermediation, the evolution of the structure of the U.S. financial system, U.S. central bank, money creation and money types
5. Facilitate critical thinking by exploring the analytical tools derived from economic theory and its applications
6. Introduce to the student the various policy tools available to decision-makers for influencing the money supply, interest rates, availability of credit, productivity growth, inflation, and unemployment
7. Introduce to the student the basic workings of the macro-economy through the exploration of basic macro models
8. Explore some of the basic macroeconomic disagreements among economists and the policy implications from those disagreements
9. Familiarize the student with the growing global economy and how the economic future of the nations of the world are intertwined
10. Illustrate the importance and relevance of the financial markets, the U.S. monetary system, the global economy, and economics in general to the student’s life and future career.

Required Course Materials

Mishkin, Frederic S. The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets. 8th ed. Boston: Addison Wesley, 2007. ISBN: 0-321-28726-6

View Course Syllabus

Sponsor Institution

Credits earned for this course are included in a University of Idaho transcript.

This is an INDEPENDENT STUDY IN IDAHO course

To learn about program and refund policies, visit www.uidaho.edu/isi.

Still have a question? Submit an ISI Support Request.

COURSE NUMBER NOTICE
Beginning with the 2025-2026 Catalog year, the University of Idaho transitioned to 4-digit course numbers. As ISI works through this transition, you may continue to see 3-digit course numbers during this time. A crosswalk is available online.