Class Name: “Crises”
Taught By: Visiting Lecturer of Economics Timothy Lambie-Hanson
Here’s what Lambie-Hanson has to say about the course:
My class spends half of the semester studying different types of financial crises—banking crises, currency crises, debt crises, etc.—trying to understand the causes of or explanations for these types of crises. The second half of the semester studies the latest global financial crisis in depth: the run-up in the housing market, the meltdown of the market, the contagion to the rest of the financial sector through various securities, and the policy response and recovery both in the U.S. and abroad.
I hope students take away a sense of the common features of these crises, the importance of confidence in the marketplace, a clear picture of the latest crisis, and a sense that one explanation or cause is never really enough to “explain” a crisis—it always is a bit more complicated or nuanced than that.
Financial crises are fascinating moments in economic history. A better understanding of crises hopefully can help us do better in the future, or at least make sure that our personal finances or endowments do not become collateral damage in the next crisis.
See what other courses the Economics Department is offering this semester.
Cool Classes is a recurring series on the Haverblog that highlights interesting, unusual, and unique courses that enrich the Haverford College experience.
Photo courtesy of Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons, License CC-BY-SA 3.0.