Free Courses

History of the Federal Reserve

The 1907 panic, the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, the Great Depression, the Treasury–Fed Accord of 1951, the Volcker disinflation, and the post-2008 balance-sheet era — how America's central bank was built and reshaped.

Public records: Federal Reserve Act (1913), Treasury–Fed Accord (1951), Federal Reserve institutional history.

Global Sovereign Debt Markets

How governments borrow: primary issuance, auctions, the dealer network, secondary markets, and the role of sovereign debt in the global financial system across the G10 and emerging markets.

IMF and public sovereign-debt market literature.

Treasury Yield Curves Explained

The shape of the yield curve, what it signals about growth and recession, term premia, inversion events, and how traders and policymakers read the curve from 2s to 30s.

U.S. Treasury yield data and public fixed-income primers.

The U.S. Treasury Auction System

How the Treasury issues debt: competitive and non-competitive bids, the primary dealer system, when-issued trading, and the mechanics of quarterly refundings.

U.S. Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service public auction documentation.

Government Bond Markets Worldwide

A comparative tour of the world's major government bond markets — U.S. Treasuries, German Bunds, UK Gilts, Japanese JGBs, and emerging-market sovereigns — and how they connect.

Public market structure documentation across major sovereign issuers.

A Monetary History: From Gold to Fiat

The gold standard, the interwar gold-exchange standard, Bretton Woods, the 1971 Nixon shock, and the long transition to fiat money and modern central-bank balance sheets.

Bretton Woods records, IMF history, and public monetary-history sources.

Central Bank Independence and Accountability

Why modern central banks are insulated from politics, the debates over mandates, inflation targeting, forward guidance, and the post-2020 tension between independence and fiscal coordination.

Public central-bank governance literature.

The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet

Quantitative easing, quantitative tightening, the SOMA portfolio, repo operations, and how the Fed's balance sheet became a primary tool of monetary policy after 2008.

Federal Reserve public balance-sheet and open-market-operations documentation.

Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS)

How Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities work, breakeven inflation rates, the inflation linkage, and the role of TIPS in a sovereign-debt portfolio.

U.S. Treasury TIPS product documentation.

The Treasury and the Debt Limit

The statutory debt ceiling, extraordinary measures, the 2011, 2013, and 2023 standoffs, and the fiscal-policy machinery that surrounds U.S. borrowing authority.

U.S. Treasury and Congressional Budget Office public debt-limit documentation.

A History of the Federal Reserve

From the 1907 panic and the 1913 Federal Reserve Act through the Great Depression, the Treasury–Fed Accord of 1951, the Volcker disinflation, and the post-2008 balance-sheet era.

Curated from public records: Federal Reserve history, Federal Reserve Act (1913), Treasury-Fed Accord (1951).

Global Central Banking: Origins and Evolution

The Bank of England (1694), Banque de France, Reichsbank, the Bank for International Settlements (1930), and how central banking spread and converged into modern monetary institutions.

Public institutional histories (BIS, Bank of England archives).

Sovereign Debt Crises Through History

From 19th-century Latin American defaults to the 1980s Latin American debt crisis, the 1998 Asian crisis, Greece (2010), and the architecture of sovereign restructuring (IMF, collective action clauses).

IMF and public academic histories of sovereign debt crises.

Bretton Woods and the Postwar Monetary Order

The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, the gold-exchange standard, the IMF and World Bank, the 1971 Nixon shock, and the transition to floating exchange rates.

Bretton Woods Conference records; IMF institutional history.

The U.S. Treasury Department: A Institutional History

Founded in 1789, the Treasury's role in financing the Republic, the Civil War greenbacks, Liberty Bonds, war finance, and the modern Bureau of the Fiscal Service and debt issuance machinery.

U.S. Treasury Department public institutional history.

Public Asset Management and Sovereign Wealth

How governments manage public assets: sovereign wealth funds (Norway, Singapore, Gulf), public pension reserves, seigniorage, and the accounting of national balance sheets.

Public SWF Institute and sovereign balance-sheet literature.

The Origins of Representative Government

From the Magna Carta (1215) and the English Bill of Rights (1689) to the U.S. Constitution (1787): how fiscal consent, taxation, and representation shaped modern democratic institutions.

Public constitutional history (Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution).

A History of U.S. Fiscal Policy

Hamiltonian finance, tariffs and land sales, the income tax (16th Amendment, 1913), wartime finance, the postwar tax state, and modern deficits and the debt ceiling.

U.S. Treasury and Congressional Budget Office public histories.