Web Page for State and Local Finance

State and Local Finance
90-790

Spring, 2000
Monday
Room 2110
Hamburg Hall
5:30 - 8:30 PM

Professor Robert P. Strauss
RS9F@Andrew.CMU.Edu

90-774 Course Syllabus

By Taking State and Local Finance You Can Learn about:

$$ Money, Pittsburgh's Bankruptcy and More, $$
Politics ,
Power and ,
$oftware $kills for your Resume,

Money: Strauss Bucks and CMU Bucks will be distributed in class and used to teach you how state and local government takes it and gives it back. Figure out how to avoid kicking in, and ensure you get your fair share!
Politics: Where else will you be able to learn how to give federal, state, and local politicians what they want: ways to finance their re-election! Make Pittsburgh Pander! ?
Power: Let's face it, money is power, and if you can learn how the Government gets it by finding ways to get the public to part with their hard earned money to finance state and local spending, then spends it on their friends, you will learn how power gets exercised. With this valuable knowledge you can: 1) get rich, 2) protect the public interest, 3) schmooze with the best of them.

$oftware $kills: Add packakes to your resume with a straight face! Show potential employers you know how to use:

Excel

Mathematica

SAS

Can you name another Heinz course that will let you pad your resume with such valuable packages?

Verbatim Testimonals from Student Evaluations:

"...this course taught me why politicians do what they do. Before I took State and Local Finance at Heinz, I frequently had trouble falling asleep. I worried about getting a job, and how I could get the car of my dreams. Once I began the course, I began to understand the logic of sales and property taxes. I began reading the Region Section of the Post-Gazette to see who was going to get indicted next to relax me, and found falling asleep to be no longer a challenge. A truly inspirational course!" Heinz 1998 Alumnae.

"...this is a must class for anyone who is thinking about going to work in the public sector. The financial shenanigans in Western Pennsylvania were a wonderful introduction to the real world of public finance. Professor Strauss made many practical problems of daily living come alive, and helped me learn how to solve practical problems. It even improved my social life!" Heinz 1995 Alumn.

"...this class literally changed my life. I lost 38 pounds and kept it off! Not only did it allow me to achieve my weight objectives, my personal life improved dramatically. I have many more dates because I took State and Local Finance, and the quality of them has improved compared to my undergraduate experience. God bless Professor Strauss!" Heinz 1991 Alumnae.

"...the end of the semester State and Local Finance beer party was better than the Public Finance beer party. They are the mainstay of Heinz student-faculty interactions. Where else could one watch our fellow students snarf down free beer and pass out, secure in the knowledge that they had completed their final exam? Strauss deserves recognition for financing and throwing the best faculty-student beer party every Fall and Spring." Heinz 1996 Alumn.

Scenes from Typical End of Semester Bash:
"I originally had my doubts, and the first six weeks didn't make any sense to me. Why did we read about Russian federalism and all that money laundering? Why so many problem sets? I swear Professor Strauss spoke in tongues most of the time. But something happened after I started attending class, reading the assignments, and especially doing the homework that is difficult to express. Things changed, and I actually enjoyed coming to class." Heinz 1998 Alumn.
"Professor Strauss asked that we subscribe to the Wall Street Journal; at the outset I couldn't figure out why he wanted us to read the newspaper and talk about financial matters in class.
"I'm from Pittsburgh and had been a generally satisfied reader of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of America's Great Newspapers.
"But after reading the Wall Street Journal, I started learning about not only what was really going in Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh, but also in the bond market, the stock market, about interest rates and government finance. Things started making sense. Last year I started day-trading on the New York Stock exchange and made $127.5 million dollars in three weeks. Much of my skill in day-trading I attribute to what I learned in State and Local Finance." Heinz 1987 Alumn.
"Before I took State and Local Finance, I had a severe case of dry scalp, was lonely and had difficulty meeting people. Professor Strauss constantly called on me in class, especially when I cut and wasn't there. That got me thinking. I realized that the only way to be more outgoing and answer questions in class was to attend. Once I started attending, my dry scalp cleared up, I have no trouble meeting people, and am filled with self-confidence." Heinz 1996 Alumn.
"I really like taking Professor Strauss' examinations because he always gives each of us a high quality cookie after we take the exam and fill out the course evaluation form. No other CMU faculty member is so thoughtful!" Heinz 1997 Alumn.
"After graduating college I worked for three years and developed an aggression disorder. Twenty-five times I attacked a blind date with a baseball bat. Friends stopped fixing me up and I was diagnosed by doctors at the Mayo Clinic as having a chronic stranger-hyper aggression syndrome. I was constantly on edge at work in fear of attacking employees I had not been introduced to, became unable to fall asleep because of growing anxieties about losing my job, and subsequently became exhausted at my job. The doctors prescribed readings on state and local finance such as The Federalist Papers as a way to forestall my waves of agression, and thereby also became able to fall asleep. It worked. To advance my career I went to the Heinz School, and found that the cure for my chronic stranger-hyper aggression syndrome helped me ace State and Local Finance. " Heinz 1987 Allumn.
"When I interviewed at a local investment banking firm, they asked me a bunch of questions about what to do with satchels of money at high school basket ball games. Their questions were right out of Professor Strauss' examinations. I could not have been better prepared for entry into the exciting world of local public underwriting." Heinz 1999 Alumn.