S-au intamplat multe de cand am postat ultima oara. Printre sedinte ASER, redactat articole pentru ASERTIUNEA si fundraising, Changemakers a fost ocupatia mea centrala. Conferinta "Meet the Changemakers" a fost un succes, invitatii (Mircea Mocanu, Leslie Hawke, Cristian Ispas, Raed Arafat) au vrajit pur si simplu sala. A urmat Scoala de Primavara Changemakers. Momentul de forta al scolii a fost vizita la sediul unei intreprinderi sociale, Motivation SRL. Despre toate acestea voi mai scrie, ceea ce vreau sa impartasesc acum este o alta experienta, de data aceasta de la facultate.
De la ora 16.30 la 18.00 am avut ocazia sa particip la un curs de macroeconomie cu o profesoara din US, Jane S Lopus, profesoara la East Bay California State University. Ea ne-a aratat un nou sistem folosit in universitatile din US: fiecare student are un fel de "telecomanda", numita "clicker" cu 6 butoane: A, B, C, D, E si On/Off. Aceste dispozitive sunt folosite pentru a face cursurile mai interactive, pentru a putea evalua studentii in timpul cursurilor si pentru a le permite acestora sa isi exprime opiniile. Ne-am jucat cu "clickerele" in timpul prezentarii, raspunzand la intrebari cu variante de raspuns. Pot spune ca mi-a captat cu totul altfel atentia faptul ca la fiecare cateva slide-uri aveam de raspuns la o intrebare, raspunsurile (anonime) aparand intr-o diagrama imediat dupa ce profesoara inchidea pollul. Clickerele mi s-au parut o metoda buna de a-i face pe studenti sa nu mai doarma in banci (lucru care mi s-a intamplat si mie - e normal cand sunt 100 de studenti si 1 singur profesor) si sa participe activ in timpul cursurilor.
In continuare voi reproduce cateva idei interesante din prezentarea lui Jane despre banca centrala din US. De aici incolo voi scrie in engleza deoarece asa imi este mai usor.
Soo, switching to English, Jane S Lopus, professor of economics is also taking part in the Fulbright Program. She talked to us about the US Central Bank, which is the Federal Reserve System. The Fed was created in 1913 in order to serve as lender of last resort (since the US did not have any central bank at all during 1836 - 1913, it had to face a lot of financial panics). In order to combat the American people's lack of trust in any central institution, 12 Federal Reserve Banks were created, so that centralization should be avoided. The Fed is run by a Board of Governors which is formed by 7 members appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. They serve for 14 (!!!) years and cannot be reappointed. The current chair of the Fed Board of Governors is Ben Bernanke, an economics professor and textbook author.
Another interesting thing Jane presented was that when one hears in the news that the "Fed is meeting", actually the FOMC is meeting - the Federal Open Market Committee. FOMC has 12 members who meet every 6 weeks to make decisions about future course of monetary policy in the US (while crisis time, they have met a lot more often).
Among the functions of the Fed she mentioned: conducting monetary policies to control the money supply, supervising and regulating banks, serving as a lender of last resort, issuing currency, conducting economic research.
Additionally, the advantage of the Fed's approach is that it has demonstrated success over the past 25 years (except for the sub-prime financial crisis), but there are negative aspects to it as well, like the lack of transparency, the difficulty to hold the Fed accountable to the public or the dependence on the skills and trustworthiness of those in charge.
The issues the Fed is facing today is the sub-prime financial crisis, the globalisation of financial markets, changing to inflation targeting and electronic payments.
There were other interesting points Jane made during her presentation. I will stop here since this post has become already too long.
PS: Did you know that...?
- 60% of the US currency is circulating abroad.
- This means that 450 Billion Dollars is held in other countries.
- Compare to Russia - 80 Billion Dollars, Argentina - 50 Billion Dollars.
