Perry Mehrling

The course is not bad, but be aware that Prof. Mehrling teaches his "money view" which is not well-known yet. It clearly goes beyond its goal of "being abled to understand almost every financial article on the Financial Times". You can feel though that the content taught still needs some development and refinement in comparison to standard economic/finance theory like IS-LM or CAPM. Attendance is not necessary, because the material provided online is very good.

This was easily was favorite course in two years at Columbia. As an econ major this is a perfect class for anyone with any interest in finance and current events since this course covers different arguments concerning the financing for major political issues today such as healthcare, social security, and higher education. I learned a lot and the workload was very manageable to the point that I was just able to enjoy the material presented without being bogged down with endless problem sets. The class is set up as a lecture/seminar hybrid and Professor Mehrling really takes that to heart since the first class of the week he lectures on the topic of the week, and then the second class is taught by a group of 4 or 5 students as a presentation on the book selected for that week. So there is one required book assigned per week but the only actual required work are the two presentations for the semester which each count 25% of your grade. The last 50% goes to the 10-15 page term paper, which for me was not as stressful as other papers since I was already thoroughly interested and invested in my topic (using human capital contracts to finance higher education). Overall, Professor Mehrling definately knows what he's talking about and I was fortunate to learn what he had to say about these hot financial topics. Great course!

This is a great class. I recommend it to anyone interested in a career in banking. The readings are good, and he is fully engaged in the topics discussed. The class is small and the focus is on discussion. It certainly helped me with finance interviews.

This class is terrible. Like another has posted, I don't understand how this man has a silver nugget. There is almost no structure to the class. There does not seem to be any purpose to it. Further, Mehrling seems to just be using the podium to 1) Sell his shitty books that nobody cares about and 2) feed his massive ego. Seriously, every single lecture somehow leads back to how he figured it all out in his second book he wrote. His covered topics are based off of readings from the 1920s and 1930s, which is not by itself unreasonable for the field of economics, except that he is attempting to apply them to post recession central bank policy which is unprecedented in action. This just adds to the idea that, while no doubt incredibly intelligent, Mehrling just "teaches" this class to feed his ego. Don't take this class, there's nothing exciting to learn. Read some financial newspapers and Google terms you don't understand. The reduced stress and time commitment will yield the same stated goal of the class: "To give you the ability to read and understand Financial Times"

2 presentions with a group of 4-5 people (25% each), one 10-15 page term paper with presentation on it (50%).

presentations and final paper. Pretty easy workload

This is an awesome class. The professor is incredible and one of those that make you love going to class. All the lectures are uploaded online and you just watch them while looking at the notes that he posted as well. Honestly, I go to class just to talk about awesome current events and discuss them in depth and maybe clarify some questions about the lectures. If you go to class and watch his lectures, you will get something out of this class and enjoy it. The only thing is that he is in love with him self, which I think I would too if I were him. All in all, if you are interested in the monetary system and the fed this is the place to be.

This was one of the single best courses I took at Columbia because of its relevance to our modern financial markets. While some of the material was difficult, it is well explained and Mehrling goes to incredible lengths to publish deeply detailed lecture notes which explain the entirety of the course in depth. Some of his lectures and the readings are boring at times because it covers history or abstract ideas. However, in the beginning of the semester Mehrling recommends that you read this things not to memorize them, but to get a better idea of what is happening. He will not quiz you on insignificant details and prefers to see that you are bringing the entire course together. On the exams, you can get both of the identifications of authors wrong, so long as you are clear in establishing why the ideas are important. On the topic of exams, they were doable and I made a few careless mistakes, but still did very well. The midterm was out of 45 points with three sections. The first was compare and contrasting of like terms. Here Mehrling gives you a pair of terms and you are to explain their relation, importance, and difference by using examples, balance sheets, etc. The second section works on the ideas you've learned and is usually an interpretation of modern events through the lens of the models used in the class. This ensures that you actually understand the models and the co…

Professor Mehrling is one of those professors who leaves you with a feeling of disappointment, because you feel they -could- have been great, but were admittedly sub par. The quality of his lectures fluctuated wildly. Sometimes, they were so dull that half the auditorium was falling asleep and/or just not coming (after a particularly long segment in the 1st half of the semester) but sometimes they were fascinating. I went to every lecture and can tell you that most of the first half of the semester will be painful and dull, then the second half will be much more interesting with only the occasional extra-boring lecture. If the professor reads this, I would recommend that he critically evaluates the visible class responses to some of his lectures and revamps them so that the quality is more consistent. The workload is heavy. There aren't a lot of problem sets, but when you get to studying for the midterm, you'll be buried in paper. Mehrling's midterm is -very- late in the semester, so not only was the overwhelming majority of the lectures on the exam, but also nearly all the outside readings, and the majority of the Stigum reading. A decent midterm grade requires mastering well over a thousand pages of very tough material. There is just so much of it that I felt confused as to what was relevant for the exam and what was not. The Final was similar but had the add-on of an essay…

I quite enjoyed this class. Mehrling was so excited to have a real life economic crisis going on while he was teaching this class. He goes into really intricate detail sometimes, so the TA sessions help you grasp the big picture. If you put in the effort, this is not a complicated class. You don't even have to do all of the reading. Pay attention to what he likes to say in class and make sure you understand those things because they will be on the test. It is interesting material.