Abstract

The College Fed Challenge is a team competition for undergraduate students where teams analyze economic and financial conditions and formulate a monetary policy recommendation, modeling the Federal Open Market Committee. This fall, the Carthage College Federal Reserve Challenge team (consisting of John Maddock, Nate Hacker, Theresa Bolog, Greigh Hoeft, and Peter Koscinski) presented their findings and recommendations shortly before the late October 2018 FOMC meeting. The team met and discussed research topics and outcomes starting in September, with an emphasis on subjects such as unemployment, inflation, and currency reserves. The presentation consisted of an analysis of current economic conditions, forecasts of certain conditions that are relevant to our policy suggestion, and a discussion of the risks facing the United States economy that are going to be addressed through the team’s monetary policy suggestions. The team concluded that the FOMC should consider keeping the target interest rate stable until the later meeting in December of 2018 while utilizing specific macroprudential tools to offset any runaway growth effects.