Useful elective for MBE students that wants to know more about the general world of finance and economics. It gives insights into how banks work and how financial crises arise.

Topics included in this course are Financialisation and shareholder value maximization; asset markets; private and public debts; liquidity and the liquidity trap; money creation;monetary policy; leverage; leveraged buy-out; the shadow banking system; credit risk transfer instruments; credit enhancement: securitization; CDOs; options & option pricing; the repurchase market & the asset-backed commercial paper market; financial derivatives; interest rate swaps; credit default swaps (CDS); the global financial crisis; the sovereign debt crisis in the European Union; socialization of debt; crisis economics; the future of finance; financial regulation.