• Problems on the CPI and Inflation
• Calculating Price Indexes
• Seeing Inflation Only in the Prices that Go Up by David Leonhardt, New York Times, May 7, 2008. A good article on why the CPI doesn't always reflect our sense of inflation. See also the graphics attached:
  • All of Inflation's Little Parts
  • Not Everything is More Expensive
• CPI -- BLS page
  • Common Misconceptions on the CPI See Addressing misconceptions about the Consumer Price Index by John S. Greenlees and Robert B. McClelland, Monthly Labor Review , Aug. 2008, for more detail.
  • CPI Research Series Using Current Methods (CPI-U-RS) for information on how recent revisions impact past reports of inflation
  • Handbook of Methods Chapter 17, gives a very detailed account of the CPI.
• Fisher Effect

• Problems on Economic Growth
• The Conquest of Nature: A Brief Economic History of the World, 10,000 BC - 2000 AD. by Gary Clark. An economic historian's reflections on long-run economic growth. (Optional)

Unit 3 -- Savings, Money and Financial Markets, Monetary Policy

• Savings and Capital Formation
  • PowerPoints on Saving and Investment
  • Answers to Exercises, Bernanke, Chapter 11

• Chapter 29/30 Taylor -- Money and the Federal Reserve
  • PowerPoints on Money
  • Yapping About Money The Stone Money of Yap. C
  • The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp by R.A. Radford, Economica, 12:48(Nov.1945), pp. 189-201.
    
  • Money Stock Measures
  • Assets and Liabilities of Commercial Banks
  • Aggregate Reserves and the Monetary Base
  • Assets and Liabilities of Commercial Banks
  • Answers to exercises, Bernanke chap. 14

• Chapter 30 Taylor - Monetary Policy and Bank Regulation
  • Powerpoints on Monetary Policy

    Policy tools of the Fed:

    • Federal Funds
    • Discount Window Borrowing
    • Recent Changes to Fed Lending. See also Chart of Fed Lending
    • Open Market Account and Open Market Operations
    • Estimation of Yields on Treasury Securities
    • Treasury Auctions
    
    Other activities of the Fed:
    • Seasonal Borrowing
    • The Key to the Gold Vault and Currency Destruction
    • CHIPS and Fedwire
    • Federal Reserve and Foreign Exchange and Exchange Stabilization Fund
    • Bank for International Settlements , Other Central Banks and Foreign Banks

  • Federal Reserve Policies in the Financial Crisis Speech by Ben Bernanke, Dec. 1, 2008. Clear summary of the actions of the Fed in responding to the crisis -- print and study carefully. Other relevant links to recent policy changes:
    • JP Morgan sees Fed cutting rates to zero in January Reuters, Dec. 1, 2008.
      See also The Humbling of the Fed by Paul Krugman, NY Times , Sept. 22, 2008.More technical is Thinking about the Liquidity Trap by Paul Krugman, Working Paper, MIT, Dec. 1999. And Monetary Policy in Deflation: The Liquidity Trap in History and Practice by Athanasios Orphanides, Fed. Reserve working paper, Dec. 2003 is also interesting.
    • Term Auction Facility Introduced Dec. 12, 2007 to provide longer-term (24 or 84-days) loans than the discount window; became the principal instrument of monetary policy in 2008. See Understanding Fed Lending from the New York Fed for a fuller explanation.
    • Interest on reserve balances Announced 6 Oct. 2008; referenced in Bernanke's speech above.
      See FAQs on interest on reserves for why this is a good idea.
    
    Not in textbooks, but in

• Financial Markets and Capital Flows
  • Answers to Chapter exercises
  • NYSE data
  • IPO data (Hoover's)
    The IPO Scorecard gives aggregate figures and list of best performers.
  • Bond Markets
  • Bond Market -- Current trades
  • Treasury Bills (3 months) -- last auction

Unit 4 -- Business Cycles

• Chapter 12 -- Short Run Economic Fluctuations

  • Text website on Short Run Economic Fluctuations
  • Power points on Okun's law
  • Problems for review

• Chapter 13 -- Aggregate Demand

  • The Great Depression Be sure to visit the photoessay and the art gallery.
  • The Great Depression in Nanty Glo
  • Fiscal Policy in the Shadow of the Great Depression by Brad deLong, working paper, 1996.
  • Powerpoints on Aggregate Demand
  • Problems for review

Chapter 15 -- Inflation and Aggregate Supply

Chapters 16 and 17 -- International Macroeconomics