Financial Crises

This course covers innovation in financial services, including recent advances that have yielded novel business models and uses of technology, such as BigTech and decentralized finance (DeFi). It explores the financial service industry's purpose to society and gains from major financial innovations. Concrete examples such as the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-09 and the 'crypto winter' of 2022 are used to show how financial risks build up and motivate policymaker responses. The goal is for students to hone their critical capacity to assess the net benefits that financial innovations can pose to the financial system and regulatory responses.