The Economics of Money, Banking and Financial Markets [Hardcover]

I reviewed every Money and Banking text I could get my hands on before selecting Mishkin's text to use while I was an instructor at one of the top universities in the US. Mishkin's text was hands-down the best text. But there weren't a lot of alternatives to choose from. This text gets used in a lot of MBA programs.

The thing I liked most about this text was its comprehensiveness. Mishkin did a far better job than the other text of introducing stock options. And of course, he covered the banking (money multiplier, bnak loans, etc.) side comprehensively. Good job with exchange rates, too.

Weaknesses: Need more on the insurance industry, particularly with the biggest banks now firmly in that business. Need more on financial futures. And finally, I'd like to see a little more mathematical rigor. I supplemented the text in an undergrad class with some more mathematical articles from the economics literature.

If you're an independent learner; that is, not enrolled as a student in a course at a school, OR IF YOU ARE, BUT THE INSTRUCTOR IS NOT PARTICIPATING (Using the MyEconLab software for course materials), and thus can't provide you with a COURSEID, a warning about the MyEconLab study aid attachment to this textbook; the instructions for registering to use MyEconLab are less than candid.

They just say that without a CourseId you can still access "most of the online resources listed." You are directed to a generic Mishkin web site instead of registering at the main MyEconLab portal.

Being an honest person, I used the alternate registration. I was still asked for the ZIP for my school; I used my own. I then got a list of local schools or "Other" to choose from. I chose other, and entered "Independent Learner".

The registration then completed; the confirmation stated it is only good for SIX MONTHS.

If you go to the main MyEconLab Web portal shown in the user manual after registering as a non-student, your user ID will not be recognized. You have to use a generic portal for the Mishkin textbook instead.

What you get there is:

e-textbook, glossary, FLASH animated graphs, chapter quizzes and Web links from the textbook margins

The Weekly news selection (web links, so may expire; earliest was Aug. 2004)

The "Chapter Readings" in journals, etc. (ditto above)

Since these can expire at their parent web sites, I suggest you take the precaution of printing them out (I use Acrobat to make PDF files or download PDF files if available at the source). Also check out any links in the articles and do the same.

The Readings are probably the best of what you DO get, along with the animations and quizzes. The web links are updated, that's OK if you're not good at figuring that sort of thing out for yourself.

There is also a series of Chapter Appendices, not printed in the book, available with the e-text of the book at the alternate site.

WHAT YOU WON'T GET:

"Foundations Interactive" (whatever that is)

"MathXL for Econ" - the math review tutorial (would be nice)

"Research Navigator"

"eThemes of the Times"

The last two are a REAL Disappointment to me, because the Navigator (see textbook Preface) is supposed (among other things) to provide "a complete YEAR of search for full-text articles from the New York Times" and "Best of Web Link Library of peer-reviewed web sites." The last is described in the Preface as "thematically related articles from the NYTimes accompanied by critical-thinking questions." I was looking forward to these, because the NYTimes charges $$ by the article for archived (non-current) articles, and this can get expensive in a hurry, and an increasing number of other web sites, including industry association journals are now similarly archive and have paid access only.

So without being enrolled in a class that has an instructor who is using the course material software, you won't be able to access some of the BEST of the advertised materials of the MyEconLab add on.

They could have been clearer about WHAT exactly you would have had access to. They also could have said that the non-student registration is only good for 6 months, since the description of the NYTimes access for a full year (which you don't get at all) might reasonably lead one to infer that the registration is valid for a year.

And I fail to see why they couldn't throw in at least the Math review tutorial, since it wouldn't seem to involve any kind of outside contract or royalty such as the NYTimes access might.

We used this book in our international finance class in univ of chicago. what i have is the 2nd edition but i have to admit this is a really comprehensive and clearly organized book, it is an ideal book for people who are interested in getting a general picture of money, banking and basic exchange rates. one drawback i can think of is the price.