The syllabus and most of the materials from Olivier Blanchard's MIT Course 14.452 are now up on the web as part of MIT's "Open Courseware" initiative. I think I'm going to have to teach this bunch of stuff at the start of my graduate macro course next semester. The problem: I don't think I can afford to spend more than four weeks on it...

14.452 Macroeconomic Theory II, Course Home: Highlights of this Course: This readings-based course has an extensive list of articles and journals which make up the base of the teaching. In addition, MATLAB® program files, as applied to key topics in the course, are shown. A set of lecture notes and homework assignments are available for key topics.

Course Description: This is the second course in the four-quarter graduate sequence in macroeconomics. Its purpose is to introduce the basic models macroeconomists use to study fluctuations. The course is organized around nine topics/sections:

• Fluctuations and Facts
• The basic model: the consumption/saving choice
• Allowing for a labor/leisure choice (the RBC model)
• Allowing for non trivial investment decisions
• Allowing for two goods
• Introducing money
• Introducing price setting
• Introducing staggering of price decisions
• Applications to fiscal and monetary policy