Oscar Wilde wrote that a cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Financial markets generate prices whenever securities are bought or sold.
Financial institutions value financial assets whenever making loans to businesses or consumers.
Thus pricing and valuation of financial assets are at the heart of the financial marketplace. One of our objectives is to link the behavior of securities prices, such as for stocks and bonds, to the performance of the economy as a whole, as well as with the behavior of financial institutions and markets. But first things first. The money in money, banking, and financial markets refers not only to the greenbacks we spend, but more broadly to the monetary economy. As you will learn, money plays a key role in the performance of the economy.