Charles Stevenson

. . W . .

10:30 -12:30 pm

HEG 300

0 credit This colloquium will focus on money and markets, using selected texts to investigate financial booms and busts, and to explore the concept of predictability in financial markets. The reading list will include: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay, Fiat Money Inflation in France by A. D. White, The Great Crash by J. K. Galbraith, Once in Golconda by John Brooks, Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb, (Mis)Behavior of Markets by Bernard Mandelbrot, Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre, and Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis, Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Charles P. Kindleberger, The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson, The Origin of Financial Crises: Central Banks, Credit Bubbles, and the Efficient Market Fallacy by George Cooper, Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek. Limited to 12 students, the class will meet for 10 weeks beginning the last week of September. (Open to first-year students. Credit-bearing tutorial option.)