This upper-level undergraduate textbook, now in its second editon, approaches monetary economics using the classical paradigm of rational agents in a market setting. Too often monetary economics has been taught as a collection of facts about existing institutions for students to memorize. By teaching from first principles, the authors aim to instruct students not only in existing monetary policies and institutions but also in what policies and institutions may or should exist in the future. The text builds on a simple, clear monetary model and applies this framework consistently to a wide variety of monetary questions. The authors have added in this second edition new material on speculative attacks on currencies, social security, currency boards, central banking alternatives, the payments system, and the Lucas model of price surprises. Discussions of many topics have been extended, presentations of data greatly expanded, and new exercises added.

"This is simply the best book on monetary theory with which I am familiar. I cannot emphasize strongly enough how this book belongs in the curriculum of advanced undergraduates. There is no acceptable alternative. Former students have told me that the best favor that they did for themselves, before going to graduate school in economics, was reading the earlier version of Champ and Freeman, cover to cover. In a better world, this would be the standard undergraduate macro text; and with the improvements in the new version, particularly the inclusion of the seminal Lucas model of price surprises, it may yet become so. The ideal course is based on Champ and Freeman, and on Russell W. Cooper, Coordination Games: Complementaries and Macroeconomics, Cambridge University Press, 1999. If you cannot do this for your intermediate students, do it for your advanced students." John Bryant, Rice University, and CentER, Tilburg University

"This is without a doubt the best text on the market in advanced undergraduate or masters-level monetary economics. Champ and Freeman provide a unified theoretical treatment of all the important topics in money and banking, and their second edition adds important topics in material on central banking, and the payments system." Stephen D. Williamson, University of Iowa

"This is an absolutely outstanding textbook. The authors are able to communicate at a very basic but rigorous level many of the complex and subtle issues being tackled by monetary theorists at the frontier of the discipline. The text is easy to read and the theoretical analysis is applied to many real-world issues and phenomena, which make it a big hit with my students." David Andolfatto, Simon Fraser University

"Champ and Freeman's book is excellent in the way that it teaches students to use dynamic models to think carefully about important monetary, fiscal, and macroeconomic issues. The authors put the models to work to explain a variety of classic and contemporary problems in macroeconomics. The models are rigorous and carefully explained, yet they are simple enough that undergraduates can quickly learn to put them to work. I used the first edition of this book to teach undergraduates. This edition is even better than the first." Thomas Sargent, Stanford University

"In this book, Champ and Freeman do an admirable job of making modern monetary economics accessible to students. I've used it as the main text, with good results, both at the undergraduate and master's level. The well-chosen data illustrations added in the second edition can only enhance its student appeal." Finn Kydland, Carnegie Mellon University