hyperlinks live at source: http://www.examiner.com/nonpartisan-in-national/debt-damned-economics-you-must-learn-monetary-policy-let-me-teach-you-2-of-2

There are five topics to understand for civic competence in creating and managing money. The first four are standard to economics curriculum; the last is rational analysis. The first three topics are in the first part of the article; this has the final two:

Money and bank credit.
Fractional reserve banking.
Debt (public and private) and money supply.
Historical struggle between government-issued money and private bank-issued credit.
Cost-benefit analysis for monetary reform in your world of the present.