Bob Schiller’s Course on Financial Markets at Yale

Yale University has published the lectures from its Economics 252 course on YouTube. There are 26 lectures from Robert Schiller and some of his guests during the Spring of 2008. (Yes, that Robert Schiller.) This ECON 252 course is one of several courses available from Open Yale. These are selected lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses that they make available to the public free of charge through the internet.

If you want to be effective at compliance, you need to understand how the financial markets work. These videos provide some great information, background, and theory on the financial markets. (If only they were podcasts so I could watch and listed during the commute.)

ECON 252 Course Summary: Financial institutions are a pillar of civilized society, supporting people in their productive ventures and managing the economic risks they take on. The workings of these institutions are important to comprehend if we are to predict their actions today and their evolution in the coming information age. The course strives to offer understanding of the theory of finance and its relation to the history, strengths and imperfections of such institutions as banking, insurance, securities, futures, and other derivatives markets, and the future of these institutions over the next century.

Each of the 26 seminars is 75 minutes. Here are the individual seminars.

1. Finance and Insurance as Powerful Forces in Our Economy and Society

2. The Universal Principle of Risk Management: Pooling and the Hedging of Risks

3. Technology and Invention in Finance

4. Portfolio Diversification and Supporting Financial Institutions

5. Insurance: The Archetypal Risk Management Institution

6. Efficient Markets vs. Excess Volatility

7. Behavioral Finance: The Role of Psychology

8. Human Foibles, Fraud, Manipulation, and Regulation

9. Guest Lecture by David Swensen

10. Debt Markets: Term Structure

11. Stocks