On January 25-28, an enthusiastic group of MPA, MPP, and Ph.D. students spent the final three days of the Wintersession immersing themselves in the details of financial markets. Now in its thirteenth year, the intensive three-day short course, Financial Markets for Policy Professionals (FMPP), provides a framework for future public policy professionals and generalists, to understand the operations of financial institutions, the economic purposes they serve, the markets in which they deal and the regulatory environment in which they operate.

Created in response to the Great Financial Crisis, the course is an important complement to the curricular offerings of Princeton University's School of Public & International Affairs. Organized and coordinated by the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance (JRCPPF), the course is taught by faculty from Baruch College, Yale, and Princeton University, as well as government officials, and financial industry executives.

Since its inception in the fall of 2010, the course has included offerings on securities, credit markets, mortgages, and derivatives, taught by business school professors and experts with considerable professional experience in the financial services industry, which lends real-world insights to their research and teaching. The core curriculum is complemented by a series of lectures and panel discussions that have evolved over time and include topics such as cryptocurrencies and Dodd-Frank legislation.

This year’s course ended with a panel discussion on financial regulation featuring Carolyn Wilkins, a member of the Bank of England's monetary committee, and Charles Yi, senior counsel at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees home mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In addition to Yi and Wilkins, speakers for the course this year included accounting professor Donal Byard, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College; JC de Swaan Princeton University; Lance Eckel, Finance IQ; R.J. Gallo, Federated Investors Inc.; Ashoka Mody, Princeton University; Charles Schorin, Taconic Advisory Services; and, Rosalind Wiggins, Yale University.

The course has been made possible by a generous gift of Noah Gottdiener ’78, Executive Chairman of Kroll. The full course program can be found here.