This is Module 2 of the Money and Banking course.
Topic Readings
The Role of Money and Its Value
+
Background Readings on Statistics and Data Visualization
Statistics for Business Analytics
+
Self-Directed Learning
The readings above are an introduction to the history of money and its important role in a modern economy. To continue your own learning about money and payments, search the internet for articles, other resources, and examples related to money and payments. See what you can learn from what others are saying about how money flows through the economy and how technology is changing the way we think about money.
+
Discussion of Module Topic
Write down your thoughts and experiences while you’re learning. Here are some prompts to get you started for writing about the module topic:
- Define and explain the concept of “What is money?”
- Define and explain the “payments system” in your own words.
- Provide links to any useful and relevant resources you can find on the internet.
- We have all used the payments system. Can you think of any personal examples?
- Can you share something interesting from the history of money?
- Why are money and the payments system an important part of the economy and the financial system?
- How has the supply of money changed during the pandemic?
- What is “inflation” and why is it rising?
- What are some examples of technological innovations in money and payments?
- Is cryptocurrency money?
- Do you have any concerns about how money and payments is changing?
- What is the future of money and payments?
+
Discussion of Module Exercises
For this module, the discussion of the module exercises should include writing about your experience of practicing with analyzing money and payments. As you’re working on the module submission below, here are some prompts to get you started for writing about it:
- What are ways that the supply of money can be measured?
- What data sources are used to report inflation and how is typically measured/analyzed?
- How can the adoption of payment channels be quantified?
- Data on transactions can be very informative. What can they tell us?
- Can you find any numbers or data that quantify recent trends in money and payments?
- How can you use Excel to work with this data?
- What basic statistics can you use to analyze the data?
- How do the statistics help you summarize the data?
- What charts can you create to visualize the data?
- Which types of charts seem to be most useful for visualizing your data?
+
Module Exercises
For these exercises, we will be working together in Excel using Microsoft Teams. The goal is to start working with some data on money and payments and then to use that data to calculate statistics and create data visualizations.
Each student can contribute in different ways to the shared Excel files on the M2 Teams channel. Not every student needs to contribute data. However, every student should be attempting to calculate some statistics and create some form of visualization. This can be done using data that other students have contributed! The main goal is for each student to learn how statistics and visualization can be used to analyze money and payments.
A. Try to find some data about money and payments. This could be data on the supply of the U.S. dollar and inflation. This could be a survey of other students about what methods of payment they use. Or it could be numbers related to things like Visa/Mastercard volumes and fees. There are a range of different data sources related to money and payments. Use whatever approach is the best fit for you. The goal is to start working with some numbers related to money and payments.
B. Calculate the basic statistics in the “Statistics for Excel” reading for your data. Feel free to explore other statistics as well.
C. Generate one or more charts for visualization of your data. The chart(s) should communicate some insight about your data.