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How are stocks and bonds priced? How do you take
account of risk and uncertainty in making financial
decisions? These are among the very real-world
questions addressed in Introduction to Financial
Economics, a course taught by Richard Spies, vice
president for finance and administration, and
lecturer in economics. (photo by Denise
Applewhite)
Financial economics provides "a
way of adjusting for the time value of money,"
Spies explains. A maxim he imparts to every student
is "A dollar today is worth more than a dollar
tomorrow"-- the truth of which is expressed in
interest rates. He likes to apply these principles
to examples that have direct meaning for students,
such as student loans.
Spies joined the University in
1971 as assistant to the provost and lecturer in
economics. He became assistant provost in 1972,
associate provost in 1976 and vice provost in 1983.
As vice president since 1988, he doesn't see any
disjuncture between being a top-level Princeton
administrator and a dedicated teacher of Princeton
undergraduates. "I don't think of teaching and
administration as two worlds," he says. "They're
just different parts of the same world."
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