BSAD 213 - Financial Crisis

This course gives an overview of the history of financial crises, which often occur as a result of bubbles in certain asset classes or can be linked to a specific form of financial innovation. The aim in this course is to understand the causes of past crises and to develop a conceptual framework that ties common elements together. We will discuss the lessons that we can draw for financial markets today. After going through the recent credit crisis and current sovereign debt problems in Europe, we go back almost 400 years and start with the Tulip mania of 1636. From there we will slowly make our way back to today, encountering many crisis episodes that are relevant from today’s point of view. The course is organized around three broader recurring themes: asset price bubbles, impact of banks, and sovereign risk.

Pre-req: BSAD 130
3 credits