Weblink to Niall Ferguson Explaining Financial Crisis Background

Niall Ferguson is a popular historian that's hosting an excellent series on PBS entitled The Ascent of Money.

Lotsa cool stuff about the role of money and credit in shaping society and Niall makes it easy to follow. Recommended for you to get a sense of how this stuff works in real life.

You can watch the entire 4 part series on the official PBS web site here.

Part Four is dedicated to the current financialization crisis.

Thinktanks: Learn How Reality is Made

Thinktanks are research institutions that produce analyses of current or future societal issues. Housing policy, income taxes, debt, credit and international trade are just some of the issues you'll see covered by these research institutions.

Some thinktanks have a political agenda while others are nonpolitical.

I have collected a list of some of the best-regarded thinktanks here. Usually, there's an emphasis on economics.

Learn how to use statistics and make arguments. Or learn to criticize their use in an argument!

Can you use thinktank papers in your project? It depends on the professor. The real point, as stated above, is to get you to see how arguments on contemporary issues are constructed.