Beyond Bretton Woods: A Critical Global Financial Architecture Review In this course we will discuss the ongoing international financial architecture review (IFAR) process, from the angle of the polycrisis (amongst others, climate change, global health pandemic, social and racial injustice, geo-political tensions and global financial instability) challenges. Students will be offered foundational knowledge about the existing global financial architecture constellation, which emerged from the 1944 Bretton Woods conference in New Hampshire. The course will canvas the core purposes, principles and design intentions to critically analyze and judiciously engage in the core IFAR themes and proposals. The 80-year developments and ensuing challenges will be contextualized with the evolving strands of the current polycrisis. The main course objective is to impart an innovative solutions mindset. The course material will provide a solid introduction to the upcoming May 2024 conference organized on a similar theme at Bread Loaf.

Sustainable Finance In this course we will posit the rationale for Sustainable Finance, which aims to facilitate business propositions and accelerate capital allocation to initiatives that benefit society, the environment, employees, customers, and investors alike.  The starting point will be the traditional building blocks of finance. From these foundations, we will assess the impact of Sustainable Finance decisions on different societal crisis points (climate change, health pandemic, social inequality and injustice, financial crisis, etc.) The course will question what the individual can do, in the face of the sustainability crisis, through innovative (finance-driven) initiative.  The course offering will be deeply anchored around project based learning principles, exploring innovative finance and sustainable framework solutions away from the singular focus of short-term financial profit maximization.

Introduction to Finance In this introductory survey course we will cover the role of finance in society, the basic workings of the financial system, how funds are allocated within the economy, and how institutions raise money. We will cover a range of topics, including: interest rates and the time value of money; uncertainty and the trade-off between risk and return; security market efficiency; stocks, bonds and optimal capital structure; financing decisions and capital budgeting; sovereign risk; foreign currencies; derivatives markets; and concerns about the role of finance in society.  The course will include discussions of current news events in global markets.

Capital Markets This course surveys and analyzes the instruments traded in modern asset markets, the mechanisms that facilitate their trading and issuance, as well as, the motivations of issuers and investors across different asset classes. The course will balance functional and institutional perspectives by highlighting the problems market participants are seeking to solve, as well as the existing asset markets that have arisen to accomplish these goals. We will consider the nature of structure of asset markets, and the design, issuance, and pricing of financial instruments, focusing on how arbitrage strategies keep their prices in-line with one another.

Investment Management In this course we will build on knowledge of accounting and finance and apply that knowledge to investment analysis, asset allocation, portfolio management, and capital markets and risk analysis. Designed to provide the basic concepts and principles of investing, the course examines investment theory and practice for investing a portfolio and evaluating its performance. We will discuss both traditional and alternative investments. Topics include securities markets, risk and return, capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and diversification, portfolio theory, private equity, valuation of equity, valuation of fixed-income securities, options and futures markets. Recommended prior courses would be: Math 0116, INTD 0116 or INTD 0217. Students who have not taken INTD 0116 or INTD 0217 are invited to contact the professor to discuss and review their basic proficiency in Accounting and Finance.

Frank Van Gansbeke

Reviews and ratings for Frank Van Gansbeke at Middlebury College.Frank Van Gansbeke teaches Beyond Bretton Woods, Sustainable Finance, Introduction to Finance and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Frank Van Gansbeke good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Mind you, this is a a fast paces class but Frank is very passionate about the work that he put together. This class is lecture heavy and it is mostly discussion heavy. Grading is super chill and everyone was doing super fine in the class. 

I thought it was a really good class, learned a lot and the professor was very nice. A lot of project work and presentations. 2 tests in class about material covered in lectures. Nice class to get a ded in if you need it still. 

Frank is a great professor who clearly loves finance. Since Midd is pretty heavy when it comes down to IB recruiting the course is very relevant. I would say anyone that wants to potentially go down the IB path should have some sort of experience in finance and this class is the perfect way to do it. 