1. How do financial markets that run freely and efficiently affect the standard of living in a country?
2. What does it mean for a financial market to be considered (a) informationally efficient and (b) economically efficient?
3. Do you think investors can earn abnormal returns in financial markets that are at least semistrong-form efficient?
4. What economic functions do financial intermediaries perform?
5. How do financial institutions in the United States differ from financial institutions in other parts of the world? Why?