STS.002 Finance and Society

HASS-S, CI-H
3-0-9 units
Prereq: None
Spring 2016 schedule
Lecture: Mon/Wed 3-4pm
Recitations: Wed 4-5pm or Thurs 2-3pm
Instructor: Professor William Deringer

How did a professional gambler and fugitive murderer from Scotland destroy the entire French financial system in 1720-and revolutionize economic theory in the process? How did the invention of steam-powered elevators give rise to commodity futures markets? How did an American transcontinental railroad, the Suez Canal, and the Peruvian guano industry all become entangled in the same financial crisis in 1873? Most importantly: what makes finance a kind of engineering? Take this course to learn about the past, present, and future of finance, one of modern society’s most critical, complex, and often chaotic technological systems-from Fibonacci to Fannie Mae, the Medici to Michael Milkin, Black-Scholes to Bitcoin and beyond.