Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know

By: Michael K. Salemi, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Michael K. Salemi

Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Money and finance play a deeply fundamental role in your life. Now, let an expert professor lead you in a panoramic exploration of our monetary and financial systems, their inner workings, and their crucial role and presence in your world.

As a guiding theme of these 36 content-rich lectures, you observe the ways in which economies require efficient and evolving financial institutions and markets to fulfill their potential. In building a full view of our financial system, you delve into these and other vital subjects: central banks, commercial banks, and the Federal Reserve; interest rates and interest rate policy; bonds and stock markets; and foreign exchange and international banking.

Across the arc of this lecture series, you'll tackle key topics that shed light on the functioning of our financial system as a whole. You study the critical subject of inflation and its relationship to the consumer price index and to excess money growth. You'll investigate the causes and implications of the federal deficit and the national debt. In the international arena, you'll learn about the implications of trade deficits in global economic relationships and the question of monetary policy coordination between nations, weighing the significant benefits to the global economy of cooperation between central banks.

This is a rare chance to gain a grounded understanding of our monetary and financial systems, and to grasp the vital elements of finance that directly affect our way of life, our national concerns, and your own life and future.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

Some problems

This type of program should not be an Audible offering. It really requires the charts and graphs, etc.

Full of content and insight

Would you consider the audio edition of Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know to be better than the print version?

This IS the audio edition - and by extension yes i would.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Well, yes, but given the length of the lecture that would be very challenging thing to accomplish ;P

Does not meet expectations

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Dr. Salemi is clearly knowledgeable and enthusiastic but he is absolutely not an articulate person. I learned more from the PDF file that accompanies the course. I tried to watch videos for this lecture series but to no avail. He also chuckles for no apparent reason during the lectures. He changes the volume of his voice to the point of being inaudible. He does indeed touch on many areas of money and banking but is it really for everyone, even the non-college educated, considering the complex formulas he presents? For those interested in Great Courses in finance, Fullenkamp's lectures are a better alternative. And if one is interested in music, consider Robert Greenberg who in my opinion is one the most entertaining and informative lecturers on the face of this earth!

If you’ve listened to books by The Great Courses before, how does this one compare?

This is the worse Great Courses lecture series to which I have listened or watched.

Would you be willing to try another one of Professor Michael K. Salemi’s performances?

No!!!

Could you see Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No

The fundamentals, skipping the hype and trickery

This lecture series does what academics do best for me (full disclosure, I am one): based on much painstaking background work (invisible to the listener), the professor puts together plain, clear explanations, and a map, in effect, of what the parts are, how they work, and why they are this way. (Thus some parts may be obvious to the listener, but the overall content is very good.) Meanwhile, the technical terminology is built right in.
A critical point is, the professor does not have an axe to grind, a hidden agenda. I have heard and read countless explanations since 2008 of banking, finance, Great Recession, the history, etc., from politicians, authors, news, etc., in which (1) the fundamental concepts are not made clear, and (2) the speaker/writer starts right in with a biased, often emotion-laden, simplistic "explanation" designed merely to manipulate the listener, mostly because there is a hidden interest somewhere: getting election/power, selling splashy books, etc. The listener can come away "feeling smart," and perhaps in a suitable emotive huff of anger at the supposed "bad guys," without ever learning a reasonable amount about the underlying business / topic. THIS audio is the antidote. To paraphrase Hendrix: learn before you burn.
The prof uses generally smaller words, and speaks in a slower cadence, than some others, which I appreciate, as this fits well with listening while doing another activity like driving, or my endless hikes (sometimes while reacting to traffic, etc.). I am able to mix all this together and come out with good comprehension, without a lot of rewinds.

Informative and well presented

I admit it, I am a bit of a geek when it comes to social studies, particularly history, politics and economics. I am absolutely fascinated with the ways that humans interact with each other. In fact, I have often thought about going back to school to study economics.

Professor Salemi clearly understands the material, inside and out. What's more, he presents the material in a way which is not only clear but compelling and interesting. He is able to speak at a level which is accessible without being condescending.

I listen to a lot of spoken material (I am in the middle of two other audiobooks now and I subscribe to several podcasts). I find myself rationing this one because I like it so much that I want to save it for a time when I can really enjoy it.

My only critique (and the reason why I gave four stars for story) is that some of the material is very basic and information that I have known a long time. As I said, I am a bit of a geek with social studies. For me, it is a good review. If you are unfamiliar with money and banking, it is good that Professor Salemi outlines the basics.

Two thumbs up!

You Too Can Understand Finance and Banking

This is a very useful course if you 1) want to review finance, money, banking and trading, or 2) are without knowledge and want a primer on the subjects. Well instructed; very well instructed.. After a listen, a very long listen, you will have a grasp of the world of finance and banking.

educational overview of banking and money

topics covered include the concept and mechanics of money, banking, interest, inflation, investments, stock exchanges, currency exchanges, monetary policies, employment, central banks, and economic cycles of recent history.

Very informative

Very informative. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o

Great content, delivery is a little choppy.

Would benefit from some visible content, e.g. slides of equations and graphs. Maybe better to stream from the great courses.

Not great on the go

Ok content and narration. But be warned it refers to quite a few graphs during the lecture series, which might be off-putting to some.