Fed Challenge

Overview

Have you ever wanted to be a national policy-maker? If so, then consider Fed Challenge. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis invites high school teams to enter the Fed Challenge, a multilevel national competition designed to bring real-world economics into the classroom. The teams that win their Area Competition advance to the District Competition. The District winner then receives an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national competition.

Goals

• Increase understanding of the Federal Reserve's role in setting U.S. monetary policy;
  
• Develop students' research, cooperation, presentation and critical-thinking skills;
  
• Promote economic literacy and interest in economics, not only as a subject for undergraduate and postgraduate study, but as the basis for a career; and
  
• Foster a closer relationship between schools and participating Federal Reserve banks.
  

Format

The Fed Challenge is a 30-minute performance-based competition conducted at participating Federal Reserve banks and branches. Each performance consists of two parts: a 15-minute presentation before a panel of judges in a mock Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) forum, followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session. High school teams (only one per school), made up of five students each, gather research to make the presentation, which includes:

• an analysis of economic and financial conditions (on the day of the presentation);
  
• a forecast of economic, financial and international conditions that are of critical importance in developing monetary policy (e.g., unemployment, inflation, output, etc.) for the near term;
  
• identification of pressing economic, financial and international issues that should be of special concern for monetary policy-makers; and
  
• a recommendation to increase, decrease or leave unchanged the level of short-term interest rates.
  

Following the presentation, a panel of judges—typically made up of Federal Reserve staff members, financial professionals and educators—will question the team about its analysis, forecast, recommendation and the Federal Reserve's role in developing and implementing monetary policy. Judges will score teams based on five criteria:

• knowledge of the Federal Reserve's role in developing and implementing monetary policy,
  
• responses to the judges' questions,
  
• quality of the presentation,
  
• quality of the research and analysis, and
  
• evidence of teamwork and cooperation.

Back to top