the options market today shows the importance of incentives.

most of the lecturers today were pretty much on form. they were trying to pitch and sell their course and were very attentive to the needs of their audience, handouts and all. i would say it was more inspiring than most of my undergraduate lectures.

also, the number of people attending the capital markets brief was supposedly a 40% drop from last year. well, you have good times, you have bad times.

the msc options courses are their bread and butter. they are the most advanced taught courses they offer, and the less people take their course, the less they can justify the number of specialists they have in that particular subfield.

monetary - interesting techniques, handles asset pricing bubbles as well. unfortunately, deals with a closed economy

industrial economics - plenty of case studies and statistical analysis. very charming case put forward by a professor whose textbook is standard in the field.

international - open economy macro, but i have to sit through half a year of intellectual masturbation which is trade theory. trade theory has interesting questions but uninteresting answers.

political economy surprised me. but a little too abstract for my liking. i may also turn up for a few development and growth lectures

and i was surprised to see euro-usd at 1.38. the gut instinct was "wow, what an opportunity". i guess they are reacting to the contagion to the european economy, the european bailout plan and the fact that the ECB will finally lower rates. but if you asked me to trust the value of european money vs the value of american money i would choose european money any day. crisis in europe is oversold.