Practical Economics for Financial Markets

Overview

Changes in the global economy drive much of the activity in the various financial markets — equities, bonds, FX, and so on. The course takes a practical approach with current and historical examples.

Who Should Attend

• Fund managers
• Lending officers
• Treasury staff
• Sales and trading staff
• Risk managers
• Regulators and supervisors

Key Learning Objectives — to understand:

• How an economy grows
• How growth is financed
• The flow of funds between the main sectors and between economies
• The role of the financial sector
• The benefits and risks of credit / debt
• Why cycles seem unavoidable
• The role of banks and the central bank
• The impact of inflation
• The impact of demography
• The relationships between trade balances, current accounts and capital accounts
• The influences on an exchange rate

Agenda

• The goal: real GDP per head growth
• GDP — what it is and its limitations as a statistic
• An attempt at a balance sheet
• Recent economic performance and the limits of knowledge
• How economies grow — productivity growth, the need for investment and savings
• The main sectors in a free market economy and the flow of funds between them
• The impact of credit on growth and bank lending
• The impact of bank regulation on credit growth
• The role of the central bank
• Economic cycles and trend growth rates
• The problem of asset prices
• Trade and growth, globalisation and supply chains
• The impact of changing commodity prices
• Quantitative Easing and Quantitative Tightening
• The impact of globalisation on wages and inflation
• Fixed income / bond markets and yield determination
• The risk of high debt levels
• The impact of demography and ageing
• Trade balances and the current account
• The impossible trinity in foreign exchange
• FX rates and influences; the world's reserve currency
• The Eurozone growth and debt problems
• Emerging markets growth and dollar debt risk