Finance and Business Economics 524

The Financial System 2005

Optional extra readings on topics of the course:

Flow of Funds:

   (1) "Financial Accounting in the United States" by Susan Hume McIntosh (Federal Reserve System) gives overview of sources and construction of the flow of funds accounts, and comparisons with other data reports (13 pages of text in bullet point format)

   (2)  "Use of Flow of Funds Accounts for Policy-Making at the Federal Reserve" (three authors from the Federal Reserve System) gives examples of how accounts are used (17 pages of text and exhibits)

Deposit-Taking Institutions:

The following websites are suggested to get a sense for products and marketing strategies of well-known deposit-taking institutions active in California:

  (1) Wells Fargo Corporation (mainly a retail and small-business bank operating in the western United States) www.wellsfargo.com

  (2) Washington Mutual (a chartered savings and loan operating mainly in the retail deposit and credit markets) www.washingtonmutual.com

Non-Bank Intermediaries:

  The following websites are suggested to get a sense for products and marketing strategies of relatively "pure play" (not widely diversified into other financial services) non-bank financial institutions

  (1) Torchmark Corporation (life and health insurance) www.torchmarkcorp.com

  (2) Progressive Corporation (property and casualty insurance) www.progressive.com

  (3) T. Rowe Price (an asset-management firm) www.troweprice.com

  (4) A. G. Edwards (a securities broker) www.agedwards.com

Disaster Effect on non-Bank Intermediaries:

  The referenced newspaper articles deal with impact of terrorist attack on non-bank intermediaries: Newsarticles9-2001

Real Interest Rate

  The attached article from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis uses TIPS yields (called in this article TIIS) to discuss factors determining the real interest rate:  MonetaryTrends7-01

Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury (including auctions)

   The referenced article from the Federal Reserve Bulletin outlines the roles the Fed plays for the Treasury: FRBulletin4-00