The Economics of The Financial Sector will track the evolution of the U.S. financial services industry through time. The primary focus will be on the most recent 35 years - a time of dramatic change in the regulatory structure and tremendous growth in the role of the financial sector in the overall economy. A central topic will be the recent financial crisis in the United States, and why it happened in the way that it did. Students that successfully complete the course will have a very good understanding of what the mass media refers to as Wall St.

This course uses piracy as a lens to explore how economies are organized outside of and in opposition to state regulation. We will explore how piracy functions as economic justice and economic warfare, and the organization of political economy within pirate communities. With piracy as a springboard, the course will go on to examine a number of different forms of illicit economic activity including smuggling, counterfeiting, human trafficking and gun running.

The economics of risk and uncertainty examines how people, governments, and businesses make decisions when they don't know the future -- which is always. We will examine different ways of "not knowing the future", distinguishing between risk, when possible outcomes and their likelihoods are known, and uncertainty, when they are not. We will give some attention to risk perception and new research at the border between psychology and economics.

Economics and the Literary Imagination, is a literature course with economic themes.

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Have we entered a new Era of Social Organization: the Era of Financialization? Financialization is the increasing role of financial motives, financial markets, financial actors, and financial institutions in the operations of domestic and international economies. We could add, that financialization also increases all of these roles in the interaction with society more broadly. If we have have entered a new era of financialization: what does this mean about the way our economy works? Does it mean that the economy serves finance instead of finance serving the economy?

Students will be asked to retrospectively analyze their experiences as workers and consumers, evaluating the impact of organizational forms and industry structure. How do cooperative enterprises (including those on campus such as the People's Market, Earthfoods, and Campus Design and Copy) differ from other enterprises? Students will also be asked to explicitly bring material they have learned in other classes to bear on these issues.

This course provides the tools for understanding the evolution of African economies after independence and their current situation in the global economy. The course emphasizes the importance of the interactions between political institutions and economic systems in determining economic and social outcomes. The course will begin with a quick overview of pre-colonial and colonial Africa followed by a selection of topics on independent Africa. Students will lead a series of presentations of country case studies.