Financial Markets for Policy Professionals
January 21 & 22, 2025
Everything you always wanted to know about finance! For 12 years, JRCPPF has offered this popular short course to all SPIA MPPs and MPAs.
The course will be offered on two full days, Tuesday & Wednesday, January 21-22, 2025, with a session on financial accounting on the evening of Monday, January 20, 2025. We have a limited number of spots available for this 2.5-day short course. Register by December 5, 2024.
The events of the last decade and current events highlight the need for public policy professionals to understand how financial markets operate. However, given the wide range of institutions in global financial markets, the seemingly endless number of instruments in which they deal and the specialized functions they perform, the world of finance can seem impenetrable to those who are not in the industry.
- What is a hedge fund?
- How does it differ from a private equity firm?
- How do commercial banking and investment banking differ?
- How are financial markets and institutions regulated?
- How should they be regulated?
These are but a few of the questions policymakers must ask in thinking about financial markets. The purpose of this short course is to provide a framework for understanding the operations of financial institutions, the economic purposes they serve, and the markets in which they deal. The course will cover aspects of financial markets that should be part of the vocabularies of all public policy practitioners, including those who work for federal, state, and local governments; international institutions; and non-profits such as microfinance institutions or other social enterprise organizations. For more information about this short course take a look at last year's agenda and a one-page news summary here.
Participants are expected to attend all the sessions in person. The course will be offered on two full days, Tuesday & Wednesday, January 21-22, 2025, with a session on financial accounting on the evening of Monday, January 20, 2025.
Course Schedule, January 22-24, 2024
| MONDAY, 1/20/25 (Room 101, Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building) | |
| 6:00 – 9:00 PM | Financial Accounting for Policy Makers Donal Byard, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College Dinner will be served. |
| TUESDAY, 1/23/24 (Room 101, Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building) | |
| 9:00 – 9:30 am | Breakfast |
| 9:30 am – 12:30 pm (break around 11 am) | Framework for Understanding Financial Markets Lance Eckel & Matt Porio, Finance IQ |
| 12:30 – 1:30 pm | Lunch |
| 1:30 – 4:30 pm (break around 3 pm) | Framework for Understanding Financial Markets Lance Eckel & Matt Porio, Finance IQ |
| WEDNESDAY, 1/24/24 (Room 101, Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building) | |
| 9:15 – 10:15 am | Climate Finance, Prof. Ekaterina Gratcheva, International Monetary Fund |
| 10:30 – 11:45 am | China's Financial System, Prof. Wei Xiong |
| 12:00 – 1:00 pm | State and Local Financing, RJ Gallo *96, Federated Hermes |
| 1:15 – 2:15 pm | The Great Financial Crisis, Prof. Alan Blinder |
| 2:30 – 4:00 pm | Financial Markets Regulation (panel discussion), Norm Champ '85, Kirkland Ellis; Dianne Dobbeck 97, FRBNY; Aaron Klein 02, Brookings Institution |
| 4:00 - 4:15 pm | Wrap-up of the course |