Check out this game created by the Federal Reserve. It deals with exactly what we are studying right now, monetary policy. The game puts you in the position of the Fed Chairman, and you must manipulate interest rates in order to balance unemployment and inflation. Click on the learn more button before playing. Investigate the Fed Toolkit and the other items in the help section. After this play the game. Give me a short summary of your strategy and how it went.
43 comments:
Reading the "Learn More" tab did little to prep me for the game, as I ended up bombing the economy on my first run through by setting the federal funds rate to high and driving up unemployment. The second time through, however, I maintained a more reasonable level of spending and inflation and unemployment remained virtually the same for my "term".
I totally failed the economy due to the fact that I didn't really understand what was going on as I first started the game. My first run through I was not solving the problem of inflation, then it changed to deflation, and a gradually increasing rate of unemployment. For my second try, I was a tad bit better, but not a great federal chairman. I realized it is not so easy making these decision, especially when the nation's economy is in your hands!
After playing the game, I have decided to give up on my dream of future Federal Chairmen due to my inability to save the nation and suppress unemployment. My first try was a fail because the learn more tab did nothing to prepare. My second time around was more stable, but I was still not satisfied with the results.
It took me a couple reads to really understand what was exactly going on. My first time I was unsuccessful thinking that pushing interest rates lower would do nothing but good. Of course I was wrong. My second time I thought, "If I tried the extreme low how about I try the extreme high?." Again I completely failed. Being the chairman of something like this such as the nations economy is serious business. There is so much involved and so many things at stake for so many people. It is for sure nothing to take lightly.
Honestly, I was clueless when I opened the link as I set the economy into extreme inflation and a depression. After a couple more tries, I seemed to get better, but I realized that I was taking the job of an important aspect to the American economy. It is really a hard job cause math is involved, so now I actually know the amount of thought and work that the chairman does.
I thought that doing the inverse of the inflation rate helped a little. I kept the Unemployment rate near 2.0 and I kept the Inflation rate around the 2.0 level for almost 5 rounds. But I was still clueless to the actual secret of stabilizing the economy. But,I was kicked out of the chair with 3 rounds to go. My second try was a lot worse and I was kicked out by the 4th try.
All I did was raise or lower the federal fund drastically or little and watched to see what it did and then keep it at or around that amount or to try to keep inflation and the unemployment rate below the the dotted lines.
I raised the interest rates very high quickly so to drop inflation quickly. This enabled me to slowly lower interest rates to slightly level off inflation and increase jobs. It is easier to creat jobs then control inflation.
This enabled me to be an economic guru who lowered inflation to nearly one percent and slid unemployment rate to four percent.
After playing this game, I learned that I suck as a Federal Chairman. On my first try I alternated from a really low federal funds rate to a really high federal funds rate because I had no clue what was going on. On my second try, I had somewhat of a strategy but I actually did worse than I did on my first try. shucks
At first I kept the unemployment and interest rate around 2.0 to 3.5 for about 6 rounds. I made it through my entire term. I still got kicked out when the inflation rate just went crazy at the end. I kept adjusting the fund rates to reduce inflation but it just went up no matter what.It was uncontrollable. At the end my unemployment was 1 but inflation rate was like 7. I am so glad that I am not the Federal Chairman or else the whole economy is going to die in few weeks.
After my first time playing the game, the unemployment rate was way up and the inflation rate was way low. As Federal Chairman, I learned to adjust the federal funds rate so both rates would remain normal and constant. First, I set the federal funds rate relatively higher than the inflation rate, and then I set the rate closer to the inflation rate. I alternated between high and low after each quarter, and doing so kept the rates normal!
I failed at first by just trying it on my own. I decided to use constant ups and downs but that just caused crazy inflation or crazy deflation. So i raised interest rates some and held it for two quarters then dropped it some for two quarters and went back and fourth. I never went above 6.5 or below 2.5. It seemed to make me a Fed Chairman "guru".
when i first played the game, I think i created a more problem that solve the problem. I had the inflation rate to go to -.16. I don't think tat is how it is supposed to be. but then when i clicked learn more and learned the important things necessary for the game, i kept an almost stable economy.
As of now it is safe to say that I won't be pursuing a career as Federal Chairman. My first try I pretty much tanked the economy. My second time, with the help of the 'learn more' tab, I still tanked the economy but in a less spectacular fashion
Playing the game the first time consisted of several mistakes that ended horribly. Later, after reading the learn more tab, i felt like a professional economist, although i still failed miserably.
I was all excited about playing this game until I discovered that there was no information that I could use for this game in the learn more tab. Th fun in playing a game goes away after finding out that there is nothing to help me understand the game. I played this game more than 5 times before i could actually win this game. after learning what the game actually says I felt that being Fed Chairman was just not worth the lack of attention for your successes or the blame for every problem that there could be with the economy, money value, the price of socks, ect.
I ended up keeping the unemployment rate at 4.3% and inflation at 2.07%. Every time I adjusted the federal funds, I either increased/decreased it in low increments, as I didn't want anything drastic to happen. Honestly though, I had no idea what I was doing.
This game seemed impossible! How do the Federal Chairmen do it? This was an endless game of constant issues. Once you thought you had the economy safe, something bad would happen. The media really does effect the economy. This showed me how hard it is to control inflation and unemployment rates. Glad it's not my job!
So i got reappointed which definetely suprised me considering how bad my first gp around was. I somehow maintained around 2% inflation and 5% unemployment. Plkus i did not spend that much. So its safe to say that i will probably be running the country in 5-6 years :)
The first time I played the game I totally messed the economy up. I tried my best to keep inflation and unemployment rates at their normal levels but that turned out to be rather hard. The second and third time that I played I got a little better but I still ended up crashing the economy.
I was repeatedly fired. The game's hints really didn't make any sense to me, so I pretty much just ended up clicking buttons... I could manage to keep unemployment low but, inflation was insane, and then vice versa. Props to the Fed Chairman. Running the economy is a not a game in real life and I can't even manage to run the nation on a simple game.
The first mistake that I made was attempting to approach this game without actually understanding it first. As a result, my economy crashed and burned. There a complete lack of instability between the inflation rate and the unemployment rate leaving me unable to establish a set equilibrium. However, after taking the time to read and gain a clearer view of what exactly was going on, I was able to balance the different rates slightly better than my first attempt. In conclusion, I will not be considering this career.
Well my first try was an epic failure and the economy tanked. I had issues solving inflation. But then I switched up my method and tried again. The second time i started off not so great, but then turned it around towards the end and did fine. This game made me realize how hard of a job this is and it takes a lot to be good at it. Thank God the economy is not in my hands.
I tried to balance the inflation and unemployment as best as I could but it seemed I'd always make one higher than the other by making the interest rate too high or to low, like many others my first time playing I put millions out of jobs and the inflation was horrible. I managed to finally get the hang of it and averaged out the interest rates well and got a more reasonable result, yet I was still fired. My lesson was clear that being a Fed must be very hard and although the group was created to be free of any political pressure, I'm sure there is along with pressure from the press.
Initially, I was really confused, to be honest, and did a poor job as the federal chairman. My second time around was also a job poorly done. I now know to not pursue this as my career, there seemed to be constant problems with new problems being created whenever I tried to solve a problem. However, it was still interesting to see the decisions the federal chairman must make and what he must constantly deal with.
The first time I played this game I didn't really read the instructions and so I failed pretty badly. After I read the instructions, I attempted the game again and did better. Although I had trouble with deflation, I was reappointed by the end of the game. All in all, not a bad game, but the Fed Chairman's job isn't easy.
This is a very interesting game as it made me realize how difficult the Fed Chairman's job is and how incapable I am of maintaining unemployment and inflation at acceptable rates. If this simple game is already this frustrating, the real deal must be enough to make you old. After many tries, I am still unable to keep either unemployment and inflation from getting out of control.
I didn't really understand what was going. First it was the problem over inflation, then deflation and there goes the increase of unemployment. However, I kept going and I still had troubles, but it worked out fine. I realized that running the economy is not an easy task. Sometimes it takes risk to achieve what is needed to achieve.
I tried to adjust the inflation rate according to what the game suggested, but it was harder to keep inflation under control than unemployment. At one point, I had everything under control until suddenly the dollar's value spiked and everything went out of wack. I barely contained it, and got kicked out of office with only about 2 more turns to go....
However, on my second try I was much more drastic with my changes and much faster and I made it to the end easy.
The learn more section did not help me much at all. I finally realized after my third time going through the game that there is a time lag between your decision and when the effects will kick in. By taking that into account, I did not make drastic raising or lowering of the interest rate; my strategy was to not panic about whatever the headlines said (and to ignore the experts) and just slowly increase or decrease the tax rate by one or two knots each term. With that strategy, I was reappointed as the Fed Chairman.
I played the game I and messed the economy up. I tried to keep inflation and unemployment rates at their normal levels but that prooved to be easier said than done. After a couple of more trials I got a little better but stil managed to allow the economy to crash.
I played this game almost four times and never got it right.
Due to the fact that I completely skipped over the 'Learn More' option, I had no idea what I was doing. I saw numbers and lines, and I wanted to make the numbers go down and the lines go up despite what the headlines reported. Needless to say, I was dismissed as the head of the Fed each time.
After my repeated failures, I went back and 'Learn[ed] More.' Because my main problem was a ridiculously high inflation rate, I should've raised the interest rates, not decreased them.
This was a very complicated game for me because of the fact that there were multiple scenarios in which you had to counterbalance. If I was held in charge, the world would rise in deflation.The first time I played I kept spiking up the federal tax funds, which ultimately kept lowering the inflation. The media even stated "deflation killing the economy". The second time it was worse. I would not balance how I raised and lowered the federal tax funds. The third time was the charm. I maintained a counterbalance between the inflation and unemployment rate by ultimately staying even with the federal tax funds. I decided to lower and raise the tax funds gradually, in turn, with the economy
I won't be pursuing any time of career as the Federal Chairman of the economy. When I opened it I was completely lost and sent the economy to failure. My second time I read more about how to play and I did a little
bit better, but all in all I'm apparently not good at controlling the economy.
This was a very complicated game for me because of the fact that there were multiple scenarios in which you had to counterbalance. If I was held in charge, the world would rise in deflation.The first time I played I kept spiking up the federal tax funds, which ultimately kept lowering the inflation. The media even stated "deflation killing the economy". The second time it was worse. I would not balance how I raised and lowered the federal tax funds. The third time was the charm. I maintained a counterbalance between the inflation and unemployment rate by ultimately staying even with the federal tax funds. I decided to lower and raise the tax funds gradually, in turn, with the economy.
Due to an oil crisis early on, my funds rate had to be set to 15 for the majority of the game, pushing unemployment to about 5.5%. I managed to reel it back to 5.2%, but the public was still not happy at the end of my "term." I believe my policy changes were too little, too late - mostly the late part.
Due to an oil crisis early on, my funds rate had to be set to 15 for the majority of the game, pushing unemployment to about 5.5%. I managed to reel it back to 5.2%, but the public was still not happy at the end of my "term." I believe my policy changes were too little, too late - mostly the late part.
I was determined to not use the "Learn More" tab. Therefore, I would have ruined about six countries before I finally figured out what I was doing. I kept ending up with out of control inflation at -7.00 and unemployment rates around 9% and even when I reversed things, it still sucked. I should never be in charge of any money for anyone ever and I feel a lot of respect and pity for Federal Chairmen.
Hannah Auer When first playing the game, it was basically a big mass of confusion. I didn't fully understand the concept completely until playing it a few times through. Also, the objective and rules to the game were not very well explained in my terms to completely get the full concept at first. Even after finally getting the hang of it by alternating between raising and lowering the rates alternately.
I attempted this game and completely dominated. My country is an economical beast. Just kidding, I blowed. I tried to increase interest rates but somehow ended up crashing my economy. I was kicked out after 2 rounds. I never realized how many factors that you can't control go into a country's economy. I have left my nation in ruins, oh and the "learn More" tab is total crap.
Mr. Pye! The comment that's left by 'Timister' is actually me, Ineye Komonibo. I used my sister's computer and didn't sign out of her user name. Sorry! :/
The first time I played the inflation rate was in the negatives and I was fired for causing such a big deflation. Then after I read the “Learn More”, I better understood how to control the economy and react to inflation, deflation, and unemployment rates and managed to maintain a stable economy and finish my term.
The first mistake that I made was attempting to approach this game without actually understanding it first. As a result, my economy crashed and burned. There a complete lack of instability between the inflation rate and the unemployment rate leaving me unable to establish a set equilibrium. However, after taking the time to read and gain a clearer view of what exactly was going on, I was able to balance the different rates slightly better than my first attempt. In conclusion, I will not be considering this career.
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