Instructor: Keith T. Poole

Office: Room 304D Baldwin Hall
E-Mail: ktpoole@uga.edu
WebSite: Voteview Home Page

Office Hours: Thursday 3:00 - 5:00PM

The following texts will be used in this course:

• Lewis, Michael. (2010). The Big Short
  
• Morgenson, Gretchen and Joshua Rosner. (2011). Reckless Endangerment
  
• Connaughton, Jeff (2012). The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins
  
• McCarty, Nolan, Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal (2013). Political Bubbles: Financial Crises and the Failure of American Democracy
  

Requirements

Grades will be determined by three examinations -- two mid-Semester exams and a final exam. The exams will consist of essay and short answer questions. The Midterms will be worth 1/4 of your grade and the final is worth 1/2 of your grade.

The first exam is scheduled for Friday, 14 February 2014, 1:25 - 2:15PM.
The second exam is scheduled for Friday, 28 March 2014, 1:25 - 2:15PM.

The Final Exam is scheduled for 5 May 2014, 12:00 - 3:00PM.

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Course Outline

1. Banking, Bankruptcy, and Financial Panics in Early American History: 1789-1860
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Hammond, Bray. 1947. "Jackson, Biddle, and the Bank of the United States." Journal of Economic History, 6(2);1-23.
     
   • Rockoff, Hugh. 1975. "Varieties of Banking and Regional Economic Development in the United States, 1840-1860." Journal of Economic History, 35(1):160-181.
     
   • Sylla, Richard, John B. Legler, and John J. Wallis. 1987. "Banks and State Public Finance in the New Republic: The United States, 1790-1860." Journal of Economic History, 47(2):391-403.
     
   • Rousseau, Peter, and Richard Sylla. 2005. "Emerging Financial Markets and Early U.S. Growth." Explorations in Economic History, 42(1):1-26.
     
     Agenda for Topic 1
     
     
     Capitalism: The Connection Between Economics and Politics (PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 1 (Part 1, PowerPoint)
     The Constitution (Annotated)
     Handout for Topic 1 (Part 2, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 1 (Part 3, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 1 (Part 3A, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 1 (Part 4, PowerPoint)
     
     
     • "Measuring Ideology"
       
     • "The Decline and Rise of Party Polarization in Congress During the Twentieth Century." Extensions, Fall 2005.
       
     • "The Roots of the Polarization of Modern U. S. Politics." Revista de Ciencia Politica, December, 2008.
       
     • Growing Apart: The Mathematical Evidence for Congress' Growing Polarization, by Jordan Ellenberg
       (Note that the links to voteview.uh.edu should be pooleandrosenthal.com. The pages are still on the website.)
       Measuring Ideology (PowerPoint)
       
       
     Handout for Topic 1 (Part 5, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 1 (Part 6, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 1 (Part 7, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 1 (Part 8, PowerPoint)
     
   
   
   Study Questions for First Exam (All Questions are short Answer!)
   
   
   
2. Banking, Bankruptcy, and Financial Panics in Early American History: 1861-1913
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Davis, Lance E. 1965. "The Investment Market, 1870-1914: The Evolutions of a National Market." Journal of Economic History, 25(3):355-399.
     
   • Sylla, Richard. 1969. "Federal Policy, Banking Market Structure, and Capital Mobilization in the United States, 1863-1913." Journal of Economic History, 29(2):657-686.
     
   • Williamson, Jeffrey G. 1974. "Watersheds and Turning Points: Conjectures on the Long-Term Impact of Civil War Financing." Journal of Economic History, 34(3):636-661.
     
   • Hansen, Bradley. 1998. "Commercial Associations and the Creation of a National Economy: The Demand for a Federal Bankruptcy Act." Business History Review, 72(Spring):86-113.
     
   • Berglöf, Erik and Howard Rosenthal. 1999. "The Political Economy of American Bankruptcy: The Evidence from Roll Call Voting, 1800-1978." Working paper, Princeton University.
     
   • Hughes, Jonathan. 1986. The Vital Few, chapter 9, "J. Pierpont Morgan, the Investment Banker as Statesman." New York: Oxford University Press.
     
     Agenda for Topic 2
     
     
     Handout for Topic 2 (Part 1, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 2 (Part 2, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 2 (Part 3, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 2 (Part 4, PowerPoint)
     
   
   Study Questions for Second Exam (All Questions are short Answer!)
   
   
   
3. The Financial Panic of 1929-1933 and the Great Depression
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Introduction and Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4, Political Bubbles
     
   • Selected Portions, The Banking Crisis of 1933, Susan Estabrook Kennedy, University Press of Kentucky, 1973.
     
     Agenda for Topic 3
     
     Handout for Topic 3 (Part 1, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 3 (Part 2, PowerPoint)
     
   
   
4. The Buildup to the Banking Crisis of 2008: Subprime Mortgages, Securitization, and Fannie and Freddie
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Prologue and Chapters 1-9, The Big Short
     
   • Reckless Endangerment
     
     Agenda for Topic 4
     
     Handout for Topic 4 (Part 1, Securitization and the Shadow Banking System, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 4 (Part 2, The Big Short, PowerPoint)
     Handout for Topic 4 (Part 3, Reckless Endangerment, PowerPoint)
     
   
   
5. The Crisis of 2008
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Chapter 10 and Epilogue, The Big Short
   • Chapters 5, 6, and 7, Political Bubbles
     
     Agenda for Topic 5
     
     Handout for Topic 5 (PowerPoint)
     
   
   
6. The Political and Economic Response to the Financial Crisis of 2008
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins
   • Chapters 8, 9, and Epilogue, Political Bubbles
     
     Agenda for Topic 6
     
     Handout for Topic 6 (PowerPoint)
     
   
   Study Questions for Final Exam (All Questions are short Answer!)
   
   Public Debt Statements
   

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Site Links

VOTEVIEW Blog
NOMINATE Data, Roll Call Data, and Software
Course Web Pages: University of Georgia (2010 - )
Course Web Pages: UC San Diego (2004 - 2010)
University of San Diego Law School (2005)
Course Web Pages: University of Houston (2000 - 2005)
Course Web Pages: Carnegie-Mellon University (1997 - 2000)
Analyzing Spatial Models of Choice and Judgment with R
Spatial Models of Parliamentary Voting
Recent Working Papers
Analyses of Recent Politics
About This Website
K7MOA Log Books: 1960 - 2017
Bio of Keith T. Poole
Related Links

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