Monday, November 13, 2017
The Fed Chairman Game
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.
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121 comments:
Jamie Chaffer
Period 1
Whenever there were scenarios of inflation, I cut federal funds and inflation rose. Unemployment continued to rise as well. (I am not good at this game). Vise Versa, I did the same thing, so after I noticed that wasn't working I tried doing the opposite and that made it worse. :)
As I started the game, I set the federal funds at 3.75 causing the inflation to rise but the unemployment fell. Soon after I reduced the federal fund down to 3.5 causing the economy to enter an expansionary phase with unemployment below 1.50% but the inflation rose to 8% so I decided to increase the federal fund to 5 then to 7 then eventually to 12 but inflation just continued to rise rapidly while the unemployment rate slowly started to rise as well because of the increase of federal funds. Overall, my strategy to handle each of them one at a time did not work because as soon as one thing started working the other would get out of control.
Jestin raju
4th period
Josie Henry
Period 4
At the beginning of the game, I set the federal funds at 3.50. This made inflation slightly go up and unemployment fall. To reduce inflation and increase unemployment I reduced the federal funds to 3.25 and that made a difference. Throughout the game, I would either raise federal funds when I needed to reduce inflation and increase unemployment and then I would do the opposite if I needed to increase inflation. In my game, I struggled with keeping the inflation rate close to 2%, so I kept increasing federal funds. In the end, the federal funds went up to 6.25 meaning the dollar rose sharply in my term, however, I did get another term. Overall my unemployment rate ended with 4.59% and an inflation rate of 3.25%.
At the beginning of the game I kept the fed funds rate low, and although it kept unemployment low, inflation began to rise way over 2%. I began to slowly increase the fed funds rate, but this did little to keep inflation low. So then I drastically increased the fed funds rate, but it did not bring inflation back down as it was stuck at around 6%. In addition to that, the unemployment rate began to quickly rise. The rest of the game I switched between having very low or very high fed funds rates in an attempt to keep both unemployment and inflation low. Overall, my strategy did not work too well because even though I finished with an unemployment rate of 3.02%, inflation was at 6.03%.
Natalie Romero 2nd period
Initially, I planned to have a high fed funds rate so that I could reduce inflation. Unfortunately, the unemployment raised significantly and eventually there was deflation. During my term, the dollar's value went down overseas, so I tried to counteract this by lowering the rate, which worked after a few quarters. Towards the end of my term, the unemployment was decreasing to the natural level, and the inflation was raising back up to the natural level. If I had a couple of more terms, everything would have returned to normal.
At the end of the game, my unemployment rate was 4.77% and my inflation rate was a -0.96%. Needless to say, I was not reappointed for the next term.
Ronald Hood
2nd Period
Aolin Yang
5th period
At the beginning, inflation tends to rise while unemployment drops. Therefore, I raised the funds to 5.00 to raise the unemployment and lower the inflation. However, something unexpected happened when gasoline prices jumped, causing the once near-target unemployment and inflation rates to both jump; this is tricky because lower or raising funds will fix one problem but not the other. Therefore, I moved it back to 4.00 to see what happens. By doing this, the unemployment rate is back at 5.00, but its dropping sharply, and the inflation is dropping at a milder rate; however, I made a blunder here by mistaking unemployment dropping as a sign that the economy is slowing, and thus cut the funds to 2.75. When I realized the mistake, I immediately raised the funds to 6.00 and then 6.25. The economy showed signs of slowing, but at that point I only had 5 quarters left, so I raised the funds to 8.00 to drastically speed things up. I then raised it to 10.00, then back down to 6.50. In the end, I ended with a 5% unemployment rate, which was good, but with a 4.68% inflation, which meant I lost. From this game, I learned that changes in monetary policy usually take effect very slowly, but when it does take effect, the effects are tremendous, so it is important not to make any mistakes or it will have a very costly impact on the economy.
Dominic Kochen 1st Period
At the beginning of the game I set the funds at 4.00. This caused little change at first but after a few terms dropped inflation and created job loss. After seeing this I decided that the best move would be to decrease funds to stimulate the economy but this simply increased the inflation and only brought the unemployment back down to its natural rate. After this I tried making the funds very high but somehow that also made the inflation increase and resulted again in major job loss. I ended with just below the natural employment rate after a last second employment dive and about 4.5% inflation. By playing this game I learned that I would be a terrible political advisor and that my monetary policies would most likely fail resulting in a failed reelection.
At the beginning of the game, I tried to maintain the fed funds rate somewhat high because a high fed funds rate tends to keep inflation low. Later in the game, I began to fluctuate my fed funds rate to see if unemployment would decrease, but sadly my inflation began to rise even when my fed funds rate was at 4.50%. I didn't understand why my inflation rate exponentially rose even though I kept increasing the fed funds rate. Lastly, I tried to decrease my fed funds rate and see if the inflation rate would decrease, but that wasn't the case and it kept rising and my inflation rate ended at 9.8%.
Rithvik Bommareddy, 4th Period
At the beginning of the game I decided to leave the Fed Funds rate at 9.00 for the entirety of the game to see what would occur. By doing this, at the end of the game I had encountered a renewable power surge and 14.99% Unemployment rate along with a -3.00% Inflation rate. Overall, I was not reelected and I believe I broke the economy.
Roshan Mathew 1st Period
The game was a little confusing to start. But as I read the rules and played it multiple times, it got easier. The game would throw you off with crashes in the stock market and other factors that would change unemployment, which were tough to amend with just monetary policy. The headlines were helped me interpret the position of the economy. The game in conclusion was quite informative about monetary policy and the Federal Reserve, and helped you get a feel for economic hardships.
Raoof Ali
Period 5
At the start of the game I decided to keep the feds fund rate at 0.00 and see if that was a good idea. It was not a great strategy. By doing this the inflation rate went through the roof and unemployment was way below the natural mark. Overall in my scenario,The dollar was down overseas during my term, I had a 1.50% Unemployment rate and a 11.74% Inflation rate as well.
Priya Thomas 2nd Period
Michelle Phan
5th Period
At the beginning of the game, i set feds fund rate at 3.50%, and adjusted to which line was further from the targeted line and tried to bring that around the targeted desire, before focusing on anything else. If inflation was high, I usually tried to increase feds fund rate and vice versa. If unemployment was high, I decreased the feds fund rate and vice versa. Overall, I ended my term with an employment rate of 5.37% and an inflation rate of -1.07%. My strategy did not work that well as adjusting one thing at a time caused a lot of problems that made it later hard to balance and hurt the economy.
First I put fed fund at 6 to see what happens. Unemployment slowly starts to raise while inflation came upa little than started curcing down slowly. To see what happens when I change it the other way I put fed funds as 2 to see what will happen after. inflation steadily increases while unemployment does the opposite. After that I put the funds to 3.75 and after clicking go 3x it actually came to be one line with me having 7 quarters left still to go. My strategy was kinda working at the same time it was still bad.
Kevin Sani Period 1
Kevine Jaimon 5th Period
As I started the game my first move was adjusting the fed funds rate at 20.00%. Not what I expected but the inflation rate and unemployment rate were moving at a constant interval. Moving forward into the game, I slowly started decreasing the fed funds rate and the unemployment rate began to quickly rise. The headlines threw me off, but I finessed my way through it and finished off close to the natural rate.
When I began the game I did not fully understand it, but as I continued I began to adjust to it. In the beginning, I increased my fed funds, but the inflation rate began to rise. Then I decreased my fed funds rate by a lot and my inflation rate became even higher. I found out that low fed funds adds momentum to the economy. The economy started expanding quickly as I lowered fed funds, which increased inflation which became a sign of trouble. It became a sign of trouble because it was uncontrolled economic boom. So then I increased fed funds which further promoted expansion My inflation rate became so high and about 7.5%. At the end, I found out that I did really poorly in the game and ended up with an inflation rate of about 10% and a unemployment rate of 1.50%. Something I learned was that monetary policy takes a while to have an effect on the economy, but yet it is a key factor. Overall, my strategies did not work.
Housna Kadrie
2nd Period
Ali Noorani Period 1
When I started playing this game I thought it would be best to raise fed funds to bring unemployment as low as possible, but it ended up backfiring as I was unable to control inflation and it skyrocketed leading me to not be reappointed.
Ambareen Virani
Period 4
Beginning the game, I was not sure how to adjust the rates to benefit the economy. But as I continued playing, I realized I could not plan ahead as surprising situations would cause the economy to change quickly. My strategy was to lower fed funds when the economy was slowing down and increase when it when economy was doing well. I also attempted to keep unemployment at the natural rate. In the end, I was confirmed for another term as chair of the federal reserve.
My idea was to start off with a slightly lower Federal funds rate, as it would have decreased unemployment first. Although this raised the inflation rate sharply, my economy went to less than 1% unemployment. At that point, I slowly raised the Federal funds rate in order to decrease inflation, but inflation came down much slower than it shot up. As a result, my term ended before I could reduce the inflation rate to the preferred value, but my unemployment rate was just under 5%. I was not reelected.
Elwin Mathew
Period 1
Pamela Gheriafi
Period 4
I began with increasing federal fund rates 5.25%. This caused inflation to rise very slightly and keep unemployment rates the same. Fed fund rates rose but were still in goals range. I then set it to 4.50%, making the economy seem well balanced even though the economy was predicted to be slower. I then set the federal fund rates back to 5.25% and everything stayed well balanced. Loans for customers and firms made inflation decrease and unemployment rise. Then the economy went into a spiral. It was very quickly and unexpected, leading me to not be reappointed.
At the start of the game, I adjusted my federal funds rate at 3.75 initially to decrease inflation. The inflation line was steadily lowering in the beginning. However, the news headlines would counteract my decisions and inflation started to increase. It was very challenging to focus on one problem at a time because as on variable increased, the other one would decrease. Luckily, the inflation rate and unemployment rate never overlapped with each other, otherwise It would have been hard to retrieve the expected rates. My strategy was not to make a significant amount of adjustment since it would alter the flow. In addition, I paid attention to the headlines so I would know what adjustment to make. At the end of my "Federal Reserve Chair" term, the unemployment rate was around 4.3% and the inflation rate was 2.5%.
Aleena Mathew, 1st period
Kyuri Baag
4th Period
In this game, I ended up with an unemployment rate of 8.16% and an inflation rate of -1.53%... honestly speaking, these results were from my third attempt at this game. No matter what I did, I ended up with terrible economic conditions at the end of my term. Every game I did well by keeping interest rates at around 5%. I would increase and decrease it a little depending on where my inflation and deflation rates were, and both would stay close to the desired levels. However, after one wrong move when an "urgent headline" appeared, there seemed to be no way of turning back. No matter what I did (increase or decrease interest rates by a little or a lot), the unemployment and inflation rate continued grow worse. Ultimately, I realized that the economy is extremely difficult to predict and control.
Tanmay Shah
Period 2
My performance during the game was very bad because the report stated that the unemployment rate was 8.93 % and inflation was -3.00 %. Having a high tax rate at the beginning of the game was helpful but soon the employment rate became too high and I had to dramatically lower the tax rate. Towards the end the revenue of the government was extremely low but the unemployment rate came back down. The strategy of the game is to have stable rate for all three factors. To achieve this, it is necessary to continuously change the tax rate value. This simulation reflects upon the difficulty of handling the economy and few of the direct results of economic policies.
Sanyoni Desai
Period 5
I was unsuccessful during the game according to the report but I thought I did very well. My unemployment rate was 6.08% while my inflation rate was 4.12%. These figures reflect a healthy economy. The game must have set the objective to keep the following levels at their ideal rate however that is an unrealistic expectation. My unemployment rate was a little over 1% above the ideal rate and the inflation was 2% above the ideal inflation rate. I used the economic policy mindset to set the tax rate. Because the scenario said the economy was in recession, the tax rate was low so people would have money to spend and keep the economic activity going. I tackled the situation properly because the rate maintained their positions on the graph. However, when I set the tax rate too low the economy boomed and I had to begin raising the tax rate. The highest rate I reached was 14%. This is a very engaging simulation and it helps a person practically understand the causes of economic policies and tax rates.
Michael Chan
Period 4
During this game I was not very successful because I kept trying to increase or decrease the federal funds little by little and when I did that the inflation rate or the unemployment rate would go out of control and spike. I tried to keep them down as unemployment rate should remain around 5% and the inflation rate should be around 2% but I ended up having the unemployment around 7.04% and inflation rate around 2.88% I tried to keep them as close to the line as possible but it just wasn't going to match up so the lines did go above what they were supposed to be.
Surprisingly on my first attempt, i passed. Not sure what i was doing at first but as i started i increased federal funds to 4.75, but when my unemployment started rising above the line, i reduced my funding to 4.25, and then slowly down to 3.75 and 3.50 and periodically changed between 3.75 and 3.50 to keep a slightly steady line bordering the Natural Unemployment line as well as trying to keep inflation near the Target Inflation Rate. I ended the game with an Unemployment rate of 4.58% and an Inflation Rate of 2.01%.
Matthew Yee Period 1
When i first started the game I did not completely understand how to work it. I began by lowering the federal funds in hope of decreasing unemployment. I was not successful in the game because i could not keep my numbers balanced.
Charli Escobedo
period 4
Alvin Yolanda Ewaldo
Period 1
Given that the unemployment rate was slowly decreasing and the inflation rate was slightly decreasing, I raised the federal funds by 2 increments to see where it would go, which it slowly managed to accentuate the required inflation and unemployment rates to win. Until there was breaking new of lowering prices, I increased the federal funds to by about 4%. This helped center the rates together until the inflation rate was slightly higher than the unemployment rate. I then lowered my federal fund to around 4.75% and it stabilized towards the end. I have been confirmed that I could get another term with the resulting score of 5.15% unemployment rate and 3.19% inflation rate which isn't so bad, I think.
Waseem Khalil P4
I had to keep unemployment near 5% while keeping inflation near 2%. Raising the federal funds/tightening monetary policy reduces inflation while increasing unemployment, and vice versa. At first I just left the percentage at 4. That wasn't working because inflation was being so high so i increased the funds. Then I dramatically decreased funds which brought unemployment to 1 percent but inflation was high. My unemployment was static at 1.5% while my inflation kept increasing. I more than doubled the funds but inflation kept increasing. I trippled the funds and inflation barely went down while unemployment started to increase. I have been reappointed with an 11% inflation rate and a 1% unemployment rate. I had an oil crisis during my game.
For the beginning of the game, I kept the feds fund rate at 4% for a while and decrease it to 3.75% to lower the unemployment rate a bit but when I saw the news of increased inflation ahead, I felt the need to increase the fed funds rate to avoid such high inflation by 4.25%. I try not to increase or decrease the fed funds rate drastically to avoid extreme unemployment or inflation rates. Basically if I saw that the red inflation line was going a bit higher than expected, I would raise the fed funds rate by .25 or .50% and if I saw the unemployment rate going above the natural employment rate line, I would decrease the fed funds rate by those same increments. But the breaking news of sudden events such as oil shortages caused the inflation rate to increase faster so I had to increase the funds rate much more to combat that. In the end because I couldn't control the inflation rate to its target inflation rate line, I ended up with high inflation and low unemployment rate. The oil crisis in my situation really did impacted my results so in the future I have to be more cautious and think thoroughly about what to do with the federal funds when unexpected events happen.
-Anne Dang, 4th period
At first, playing the game was slightly difficult because I didn't exactly know how the game worked. But, after a couple of tries, I eventually got the game. What I did was I started with the default feds fund rate of 4.00 and studied how the graphs moved for the first two quarters . When I saw how the unemployment rate went down, I slowly started raising the feds fund rate to see it steadily raise again, while lowering the inflation which got kind of high. And once I saw the unemployment too high, I slowly lowered it to keep the inflation and unemployment rate real close to the natural unemployment rate and target inflation rate.
Camille Trusclair 1st period
When I first started the game, I did not really understand how to play. So I left the game alone and observed what the game was doing. Then I adjusted the federal funds to reduce inflation. I thought that this would help the objective of the game, but it did not. The inflation was becoming more higher than the unemployment rate. However, in the end the unemployment rate was 2.7%, while the inflation rate was 4.4%. Probably if I did not try to reduce inflation and just left it the way it was the game would have been better.
Tejiri Okukpe
Period 1
Raising the federal fund caused the unemployment rate to drop and inflation to rise for some reason. Lowering the federal fund number below 3.75 caused the unemployment rate to rise drastically, and the household fund to rise as well. My strategy really was to just adjust the numbers according to the results they gave.
Meryem Pecen
1st period
Sena Pecen
P.5
I began by studying the graph and later adjusting federal funds and analyzing the affect on the graph. It was difficult to keep the graph balanced and stable at the same time. After trying different methods with raising and lowering the rates, I realized that I must increase funds before inflation occurs and also make sure to keep unemployment low as well. The strategy to this game is to not increase or decrease a lot at once. The trick is to slowly handle the federal funds and create the right affect slowly.
At first, I did not really understand how to modify the rates to help the economy. But when I started to play, I realized I could not plan this in advance as unexpected situations would shift the economy to change quickly. My technique was to decrease fed funds when the economy was decreasing and increase it when the economy was doing well financially. I also tried to keep unemployment at the natural rate.
Before I really began playing the game I first played around with the different federal funds amount to see how it effects unemployment and inflation. I concluded that the increase in funds increases unemployment but decreases inflation rates. I kept these factors in mind while playing. I began at a stead rate of 4.00 which allowed for inflation to decrease while unemployment reduced slowly. When the incoming news of inflation came about, i increased funds to negate its effect. Although the unemployment rose, I lowered funds in the next term so it could go back to the natural rate.
Period 1
Aylin Sanchez
2nd Period
At the beginning of this game I had kept the funds at 4.00. For the first 3 quarters, the unemployment rate decreased and the inflation rate would occasionally increase but then decrease. After a while inflation started increasing drastically. When that happened I would lower the funds but all it would do is increase inflation even more. At the end of the game the unemployment rate decreased but the inflation rate increased. After playing this game, I realized that I would not be suited for this job in the future.
At the beginning of the game I tried to mess around with how increases and decreases in the federal fund would affect the economy. After a couple tries I was able to see the effects and therefore was able to attempt at keeping the unemployment and inflation rates where they needed to be. Towards the end of the game, this did not help me because different factors, which I would try to counteract, would end up keeping the economy to go toward the opposite of where I needed it to go. In the end, I had a below natural unemployment rate and an above desired inflation rate. I would not be reelected, but that is probably a good thing.
Julianna Hastreiter
Period 5
Lauren Chamberlin
Period 5
Like most people I was playing around with the game in the beginning to see how everything worked. Everything seemed to go well, and I kept the feds Fund Rate stagnant for a few quarters because nothing was going bad or changing. This helped lead to not as much inflation or unemployment in the beginning and middle of the game. Though once the outside forces on the economy started to hit, it completely rewired and change my strategy. I realized that even when I tried to counteract the breaking news, either the next time the economy would "be fixing itself" or "trying to repair," which would then counteract what I had done. It was frustrating to see my efforts end up hurting the economy as I tried to help it. It showed the delay really well. In the end I had the right inflation rate but I did have an above average unemployment rate, and I would not be reelected.
When I started off this game, I was kind of confused, then I played around with the rate just to see what it really does to unemployment and inflation. I realized that lowering the fed funds rate will increase inflation and decrease unemployment, and vice versa. I started with 3.75 and anything below that will increase unemployment rate. After a while, inflation would not stop increasing and unemployment will not stop decreasing. In conclusion, I realized that changing the rates slowly is the key to this game.
Jibin Philip
2nd Period
My first time playing the game I had no clue what exactly what I was doing even after reading the help and everything. Inflation was way too high and I ended up "losing" the game. The second time I played, I increased the funds rate around 9 to control the inflation, but at the same time had to control the unemployment rate by cutting the funds rate to around 2 or 3. The second time I won the game but the first try definitely shows what would've happened if I was in charge of monetary policy.
Kevin Yu
Period 2
Anna Mayzenberg 5th Period
As I started the game, I kept policy the same for a few rounds, but inflation went up and I knew I needed to keep it close to stable. Unemployment went down, though, so I continued. After a while, inflation was up too high, so I went down on the funding to 3.50. Unemployment went down, but inflation kept going up. I raised it to 4.50, but the economy got too hot, so I brought it down to 4.00 and then 3.75. Inflation kept going up, but everything else seemed to be doing pretty well. I ended up with a very low unemployment rate, but a very high inflation rate, even though I tried to counteract various events.
When I first started playing the game, I did not really understand how to play it. However,later on, I learned that I should not drastically change the fund rates at each quarter. Instead, I need to pay close attention to the news headlines and base my rates according to the expansion and downfall of the economy. If the news was something negative then I need to decrease my fund rate and if the economy was positive, i need to increase the fund rate. My first attempt was really bad, my unemployment rate was well past the desired percentage, it was 8.60%. The inflation rate was in the negatives. However, after implementing my strategy the second time around, I was able to attain unemployment of 5.02% and inflation of 1.99%.
Jyotis Joy
Period 5
Right from the start of the game, I was confused as to how to play it. I did read the goals and how to play part, but i was still slightly unsure as to what to do. I started by just observing the news headlines and trying to match the funds in order to get the unemployment and recession rates at where they were suppose to be. Most of my tries though were unsuccessful, mainly because i would change the rates in great amounts. In the end, my unemployment rate was 9.06% and my inflation was -0.64%. If i were to do this game again, I would adjust the rates in smaller rates.
Cassie De Leon
4th period
Alan John/5th Period
Primarily, I had no clue on how I was going to approach playing this game. Considering that I had to keep the unemployment rate close to its natural rate (5.00%) and the inflation rate near 2.00%, I figured that I would only move the Fed funds rate by +- 1.00%. At first I changed it to 5.00% and the economy went well. I then decided that if I was too constant, the unemployment rate would crash, so I decided to go from 5.00% Feds funds to 3.50%, and then the stock market crash due to lack of consumer confidence. This game made me realize that the Chair of the Federal Reserve really has to know their stuff.
The game at first seem very confusing. So, first, I raised it to 5.00 and saw how that affected both lines of the graphs and then i started lowering it a lot every two quarters to see how it worked. After about three tries, I took another strategy of raising and lowering it when there was a slight change.I eventually got successful but the first tries, I didn't.
Jacob Rice 1st
Naomi Samuel
Period 5
When the game first began, i had no clue what to do so i was constantly lowering the federal funds rate. Then i realized that by lowering this it caused the unemployment to decrease but inflation rose and i no longer had balance in the economy because inflation skyrocketed and unemployment stayed low. Then i realized that by slowly increasing the federal fund rate and decreasing it slowly at a balance really helped the economy grow. This game showed me the influence the Chair of the federal reserve has.
Jeremiah John
Period 2
At the beginning of the game, i lowered the federal fund rate and observed what happened. When i lowered it is when unemployment declined. So after a few trials i finally understood that I had to increase and decrease the rate to keep the economy at a balance and increasing it by too much and decreasing it by too much creates crazy fluctuations in the data. This game helped me realize the importance the Chair of the Federal Reserve has.
At first I started the game with a 4.00 feds rate and when there were events of inflation I increased the feds rate as well, which seemed to work lowering the national employment then raised it again when inflation lowered. This game worked best, with an invesre relationship when inflation rose, dropping the feds fund rate. This is was very good game and it taught me alot about the effect of the dollar on the economy.
Mia Harris
2nd pd
Kriti Bansal
Period 5
When the game first began, I decided to focus on keeping the inflation rate at the Fed's Target of 2%. I managed to do this but realized that an unintended consequence of doing this is that the unemployment rate rises. In order to lower unemployment I decreased the fed funds rate. Since the unemployment rate was significantly high, I continued to focus on lowering it. There was a point in which the inflation rate and the unemployment rate were no too far away from their targets, and so I decided to keep the fed funds rate constant for around 2 quarters. There was also an oil crisis during my term causing prices to increase greatly and so a lot of my focus towards the end of the game was to get prices to decrease again; this caused high unemployment. By this point of the game I realized that there will be major fluctuations in the economy as when you focus on one thing the other goes out of hand. Overall I seemed to have balanced the economy well and was successful in the game. I ended with a unemployment rate of 5.88% and an inflation rate of 1.92%.
The game was difficult to understand, and I was unsure on how adjusting the federal funds would affect the graph. At first, I cautiously changed the federal funds and barely changed it from 3.00. My strategy was more of seeing how drastic the changes were and taking a logical approach on the situations provided. Throughout the game I was close the the recommended dotted line,but in the end I ultimately had a a higher inflation settling at 3.5 and unemployment at 5.79.
Jenina Bianty
Period 5
When the game began, I kept the federal policy at the initial 4%. The inflation rate and the unemployment rate on the graph continued in an inverse relationship, and each term that went by would cause the lines to be closer to intersection. I realized that increasing the Federal Funds would decrease inflation but increase unemployment, while decreasing the Federal Funds would increase inflation but decrease unemployment. I noticed it was a lot easier to fluctuate the unemployment rate than the inflation rate, as it took more terms to notice change. I was unsuccessful the first two games i played because of high price in the economy, but on the third game, I was able to maintain both the rates. This game has taught me how difficult and important it is to manage the economy, and being the Fed Chairman is more difficult than I would have expected.
Jun Hin Loi
Period 4
Overall, my strategy was to change interest rates very little. I never adjusted the interest rates higher than 4.25 or lower that 3.50. Although the game was initially a little confusing, and I had a hard time deciding what to do, changing very little and staying in a small range of number proved to work. Through the 16 quarters in my term, unemployment never reached 5.50% and never went lower than 4.50%. Interest rates also remained. The trend with inflation was similar and stayed closely around 2%. Overall, I ended the game with an unemployment rate of 4.59% and an inflation rate 2.16%, and I was reelected as fed chairman. I enjoyed playing the game, and it taught me a lot about what it means to be the fed chairman.
Rendon Reinarz
Period 5
My strategy was to handle inflation as my primary focus and unemployment as secondary. I didn’t change policy very drastically at any point because I think that would only make problems worse. Overall it was a very minimal approach and it was effective.
Originally, unemployment rose slighltly while inflation dropped. After I rose federal funds slightly, unemployment began to fall while interest remained low. Soon after, unemployment and inflation both stabilized at “better than ideal” levels.
Matthew Whaley
4th Period
When playing the game for the first time, I was not sure how much I would need to change the federal funds rate to create the changes desired in the inflation and unemployment rate. After playing the game numerous times, I was able to understand the impact of changing intervals in the federal funds on the unemployment and inflation rate. Initially, my strategy was to keep the federal funds rate somewhat constant, not changing it by more than .5%. However, numerous events in the breaking news, like a stock market crash or change in oil prices, would change the unemployment and inflation rates so drastically that I was unable to repair it, even if I changed the rate by over 6%. This game taught me the depth of knowledge the Chair of Federal Reserves has to have about different trends in the economy and the impacts the federal funds rate can have on it.
Erik Shoga
Period 2
Kale Wicks
Period 4
My strategy was to decrease unemployment while managing inflation. In the beginning inflation rose slightly while unemployment lowered by a significant amount after I lowered the price. However as I held the steady price inflation started to rise rapidly. Eventually it would get to a point where, while having a very low unemployment rate, the inflation was rising out of control. In order to try and stabilize this disposition I rose prices rapidly and increasingly. Unfortunately this did not quell the inflation, only slightly causing it to slow down while unemployment started to increase rapidly. Eventually the term ended with inflation and unemployment around 6%.
I was not very successful with this game. I decided to focus my attention on lowering the unemployment rate first. I lowered the Federal funds and watched as unemployment rates fell, which was good. The only problem was that inflation rates rose drastically. I tried raising the federal budget in order to get inflation back down, but it remained high. Needless to say, I was not re-elected.
Jessica Merhav
2nd period
I did not do very well in the game initially, but after playing with it for a while I was able to keep the inflation fairly constant although it was always higher than the target inflation, but kept the employment at a fairly constant level, which is the most important since if the people were able to work then regardless of the inflation rate they would be able to work and support themselves. If the people contribute to the economy then it becomes easier on the government and the overall economy rises since theres less freeloaders. The game popped random news events in which I would need to change my funding and just shows how sensitive the economy is to changes.
Epstein Jacob
Period 4
This game required thinking on my part, and continual adjustments to my strategy. Right off the bat, i immediately lowered the federal find rate, through realized that in turn the unemployment rate rose. However, when I, instead of leaving the federal funds rate at a constant, low rate, continually adjusted the rate, the unemployment rate stayed rather constant. I did not get the job as fed chairman though learned a lot playing this game.
Marcus Ellis
Period 1
I was not very successful in playing this game. I primarily focused on lowering the the federal funds, which in turn lowered the inflation rate, because I felt as if with low inflation, other things would fall into place. However, I quickly realized that lowering the inflation rate in turn increased unemployment, and was not a good strategy to use. I then, instead of keeping inflation at a constant rate, decided to continually adjust the federal fund/inflation rate for real world events, because different events require inflation and deflation. Furthermore, I was able to recognize the sudden changes in economy that required different changes to be made on my part. The best strategy that i employed in which brought me the most success in this game was utilizing an inverse relationship between federal funds and inflation rate (when one rose, drop the other, and vice versa). Although I was rejected as the fed chairman, if i were to play the game with the knowledge I now have, I believe I would be successful.
Taryn Gheen
Period 1
The trick to this game is to balance the raise of unemployment with the raise in inflation. Based on the games that i have played, inflation increases and decreases more rapidly than the natural unemployment. Because of this, it is better to keep federal fund rates higher because it will reduce the more fluctuating inflation. as long as unemployment is somewhat close to the line, having higher monetary policy is better. It also depends on the scenarios which decisions are better than the others.
Jeff Kue
2nd
Playing the game generally confused me because of the fact that I didn't understand what any of it meant. Hence why my first run of the game ended with the result being an unemployment rate of 1.90% and inflation rate of 7.99% with my results causing me not to be reappointed. Thus I had to take the time to fully understand exactly how the Federal Reserve's job is to manage the interest rate in order to keep unemployment low with inflation while making sure inflation itself not get to high cause then spending won't happen and the economy suffers even more. Upon my second attempt I decided to let the economy manage itself unless it was hitting a dangerous area, and to my surprise I only need to loosen it during my last two quarter when inflation was nearing a bad zone. My end result this time was much better being an unemployment rate 5.23% and inflation at around 1.83% which assured me that I would be confirmed for another term!
The Federal Reserve game was quite difficult. At first, the game was very confusing and I was not sure what I was doing. What I did was I kept Federal Funds high which was actually a downfall and rose unemployment. The trick is to raise Federal Fund rates but not too high and this limits inflation rates from changing rapidly, keeping them more stable. This all results in the unemployment rate staying fairly low. The game requires a lot of practice and I became better each trial I attempted.
Cameron Walker
Period 4
I tried to keep it to 4.00-475 but my inflation was decreasing steadily below the target inflation rate. Anytime i would change the federal funds rate it would just have steep changes in federal funds rate. I didn't do well in the game because even the smallest shifts in the federal funds rate can change with all three lines. I worried about the unemployment rate and the inflation rate more than anything but half way through the game nothing would decrease my unemployment rate and it kept going up. I ended with 5.97% unemployment rate and 2.07% inflation.
Sarah Sultan
Period 4
This game certainly did open my eyes about the complexity of the economy and how federal funds directly affect unemployment and the inflation rate. As I increased federal funds, the unemployment and inflation rate seemed to increase. Contrastingly as I decreased federal funds, the unemployment and inflation increased. You also have to worry about how your nation's currency is valued overseas.
Crystal Obaretin
Period 1
Observing the inflation and unemployment rates and adjusting fund rates accordingly was the whole point of the game. The "YOUR JOB" tab provided very useful information that helped me to decide how to respond to rapid changes in inflation and/or unemployment rates. Aiming for stability usually resulted in better control of the economy. Looking ahead and predicting how the current rates would influence the economy in the future was the most important skill necessary for the game.
Rakesh Johny
period 1
At first I increased and decreased the fed rate by enormous amounts which made the economy harder to control. Then i just tried to keep the rate as close to 4% as possible, slightly adjusting things. Whenever it said the economy needed to be slowed down, I would raise inflation rates a little. I would lower inflation rates if the economy needed more jobs. I was not very successful but I was pretty close.
Kyle okeke, period 2
I began with the initial set rate and watched the graph until it started to go off course. I then focused my attention on either inflation or unemployment depending on which one was performing worse. That strategy failed as I focused on one the other would start to take a bad turn. for the last final moves I tried to keep both as stable as I possibly could together. this strategy seemed to be more effective by making minimal changes to the rates. the effects of the second strategy by the end of the game made for a slightly better result, but I had started it too late to recover fully from my initial bad strategy and ended with a poor final result.
Mitchell Arwine, period 4
Shane Samuel
1st Period
I have performed 3 trials in total to Keep unemployment close to its natural rate of 5% and Keep inflation near the Fed's 2% inflation target, through the controls or the + (to raise the fed funds rate or tighten monetary policy, which over time tends to reduce inflation and increase unemployment) and the – (to cut the fed funds rate or loosen monetary policy, which over time tends to boost inflation and lower unemployment). The first trial was to just play around with the game, so I placed the federal government spending at $0.00 and I watched as how I resulted with an unemployment rate of 1.50% and an inflation rate of 11.23%. Then, I began with an experiment of maximum government spending of $20.0 and I watched unemployment be at 21.44% above natural Unemployment rate and how target inflation rate remained at -3.00%. Afterwards, I attempted to stabilize the government spending to the scenarios given above and I managed to decrease unemployment rate at 5.11% and inflation rate at -1.54%, although I decreased both unemployment and inflation rate, the computer claimed that I was not reelected for another term, because I can’t maintain a stable rate at both the nature rate of unemployment and inflation rates.All in all, i have realized how difficult it is to keep both variables intact.
When I was paying this game my strategy was to just try to wing it as I go ad mess with the numbers. This however did not work out the first few times because sometimes the inflation would up to 9% and that was really bad and my unemployment rate will go all over the place. What I ended up doing was when ever it gave me hints that benefits are coming or there is going to be something that can negatively affect the economy I just lower the funds if its going to be bad and raise it if its going to be good.
Jerry George
2nd Period
At first, the game was a little confusing, but in a while, I got the hang of it. I started off with the federal fund rate at 5.00 and noticed that the unemployment rate increased. As a result, I decreased the rate to 4.00 and noticed that the unemployment rate went down. The game said the economy was expansionary and was booming, so I kept decreasing the federal funds' rate and the unemployment rate kept decreasing. However, I failed to notice that the inflation rate was skyrocketing in the meantime. It was at 10.9%, so I started increasing my federal funds' rate to try and balance it all, but it was too late and I failed. I wasn't reappointed.
When playing the game for the first time, I was not sure how much I would need to change the federal funds rate to create the changes desired in the inflation and unemployment rate. After playing the game numerous times,I decided to let the economy manage itself unless it was hitting a dangerous area and then I started increasing the Fed fund rates by 0.25% for every quarter until the last one. By the end of the game, my inflation rate was 0.74% and my unemployment rate was 5.51%. I was successful and was reappointed for another term. Through this game I learnt that the Fed chairman has a huge influence.
Harshada Kulkarni
Period # 1
When I played the game for the first time, I started out with a rate of 4.00 but then unemployment started falling while inflation would rise, so I cut taxes. The middle portion of the game went ok, and I would just slightly increase or decrease the rate based on the "news". Towards the end, however, inflation started rising and unemployment started falling no matter what I did. I would increase the rate but the trend kept going. At the end the rate was 9.00 and but I couldn't get the unemployment and inflation rates back to normal. I ended up with an inflation rate of 4.44% and an unemployment rate of 3.88% and was not reappointed.
Bryan Ta
4th Period
I began the game by lowering the federal fund rates, after I did that the unemployed rate went lower which in there was great but is unsteady and not realistic as it got closer to 2%. The inflation rate in turn increased to an ultimate peak of about 9%, which was utterly hideous. I then increased federal fund rates to eventually 18% for the inflation rate to go down to about 8% then the unemployment rate up to almost 5%. I did not do very well.
Robert Slaybaugh
4th Period
Jubin Joseph
Per. 5
When I first started playing, I was confused about how the game works. However, as the game progressed on, it started to make sense. I resorted to a strategy that revolved around letting the economy take its course until it started to pass into the danger zone, which leads me to raise the federal fund rates by .75%.
Sang Kirsten Ebueng
2nd Period
At the very beginning of the game my strategy was to balance out inflation and unemployment. To do that I would adjust the federal fund rate from 4.00 to 5.00. This method worked until one point where both unemployment and inflation experienced a rapid decline, to counter this and keep them at both target inflation rate and natural unemployment I raised the federal fund rate to 7.00. After a few quarters I had ended with unemployment slightly above natural unemployment and inflation slightly below the targeted inflation.
Elizabeth Stech
Period 4
I initially intended on keeping the unemployment and inflation rate levels around the same amount. I started out with a rate of 3.00 which kept the two rates relatively similar for a temporary amount of time. After a few rounds, I slightly adjusted the rate, which caused my inflation rate to increase rapidly. Unfortunately, I was unable to bring it back down to a reasonable number. The next time that I played the game, I realized that the inflation rate is much more susceptible to fluctuation than the unemployment rate. Therefore, I focused more on increasing federal funds because it helped to keep the inflation rate at a reasonable value. The unemployment rate was not greatly affected when I used this method. I learned that keeping the unemployment and inflation rates in tact is a very hard task. It takes an individual that truly understands the economy to be in charge of managing these rates.
As I began to play the game, it took me about 3 terms to understand how changing the federal funds would affect inflation and unemployment because for my first couple of terms the rates did not change too much. After I set the funds to around 5, the inflation began to drop a lot, and continued to the point where the economy was in a crisis. In order to fix it, I had to drop the funds to around 1, and i steadily increased. At the end of my term, I finished with a 3.94% unemployment rate and a 1.84%
Kenneth Easo
4th Period
I was not very successful with this game. I focused my attention on lowering the unemployment rate first by lowering the federal funds and watched the unemployment rates fell, which was good. The only problem was that inflation rates rose quite drastically. I tried to raise the federal budget in order to get inflation down, but it remained at a high level. Needless to say, I probably wouldn't be elected fro a second term
Nathanael Tan
1st Period
What strategy? I'm pretty sure that game just randomly controls everything. I tried to influence the market by raising or lowering Few funds, but it didn't work. Inflation and unemployment went out of my control. Although I did have a stock market surge and a rise in the value of the dollar. But seriously, I am not convinced that changing the Fed funds in that game could actually work at changing the inflation and unemployment rate.
At the start of the game i had no good idea of what i was doing. I then proceeded to set the rate to 15.00. After doing so unemployment had skyrocketed and inflation had decreased slightly. After realizing what had happened i decided to try and revert it back to normal by setting the rate to 0. This only barely decreased the unemployment rate and even further decreased the inflation rate by a very large amount. The rest of the game I attempted to fix what i had messed up beyond repair finally ending with very bad inflation and unemployment rates.
Adrian R-Martinez
Period 2
I started the game with a 4.68% unemployment rate and 2.11% inflation. I first thought to keep a steady fed fund rate between the inflation and unemployment rates. Soon the inflation rate began to drop into the negatives.Although, unemployment rates remained around 5-6 percent, inflation continued to decrease. To resolve this, I lowered the fed fund % to less than the inflation % until it reached 0 in hopes the inflation rate will go up. To maintain a steady unemployment rate, I increased the fed fund rate to more than the unemployment rate. By the end of the game, inflation was negative but rose from negative 5 to negative 2.5. The unemployment rate ended as 5.87 percent. Obviously, I was not reappointed, as there was a housing market crash during my term.
Denise Doyle
5th period
Sahil Shah
Period 2
The game started with unemployment slightly below the natural rate, so I hiked interest rates. However, I didn't see an improvement so I steadily increased rates. This was a big mistake. After I did this, the economy crashed. I fell into a recession and unemployment soared to 8% and there was 1-2% deflation. However, I was able to slowly bring the values closer to each other. In the end, my term was renewed and I had a 4.34% unemployment and a 1.72% inflation rate. The primary strategy I used was to try to beat the market. Instead of being reactive, I tried to be proactive.
I started out this game without knowing how to play it or what to do exactly. It was almost a trial and error situation throughout the game. When trying to lower the unemployment rate, I tried to decrease the federal funds and basically hoped that the numbers became balanced. As the game progressed, I found it harder and harder to keep the numbers balanced. Overall, I would say that I was pretty unsuccessful in keeping the numbers balanced and rates/percentages balanced.
Danni Hertel
Period 1
Emily Tran
Period 2
At first the game was sort of difficult to figure out, but as I continued to play over multiple times, I sort of figured it out. The first time I played I set the federal funds rate at a high increase and then also at a sharp decrease as well which led to high inflation and low unemployment which made the economy unstable. I tried again and this time only decreased and increased at small intervals which seemed to help the economy stay at a stable rate because it would only change the inflation and unemployment rates slightly.
Ashish Singh
Period 1
I played 2 different games and used two different strategies. My first game I followed the advice given, which is that increasing fed funds will reduce inflation and increase unemployment and decreasing fed funds will boost inflation and lower unemployment. When inflation was increasing, I increased fed funds, and when unemployment was increasing, I reduced fed funds. At the end of the time period, I did not get re-elected the position with the dollar value increasing sharply. The second game I just tried whatever I felt was right and I, again, did not get re-elected and the inflation was too high.
At the beginning of the game I was confused on how to play the game, but as multiple quarter times passed I began to get more comfterbale with playing. My strategy consisted of increasing government spending when I was aware that people were cutting back spending, so to stimulate the economy I added money to their wallet. To say the least I will not become an economist. My end result did not improve when compared to what I started with. To be more than relaistic, my strategies did not prove very helpul.
Sophie Wedgeworth
Period 5
In the beginning, I attempted to keep the unemployment rate and the inflation rate where they started when the game began. I was completely clueless as to how to play the game, and I did not understand what was happening for a while. I started out with a rate of 4.00 which kept the two rates about the same for a few rounds. After a few rounds, I slightly adjusted the rate, which caused my inflation rate to decrease rapidly. I could not bring it back to a reasonable, it just kept going down. I learned that unemployment rate was a little easier to keep at a steady rate as it did not fluctuate as easily. I learned that keeping the unemployment and inflation at reasonable rate is a very hard task, it takes someone who understands the economy to be in charge of managing these rates. I was not reappointed because there was a stock market crash during my term.
Janice Wilson
Per.5
At the beginning of this game, I started with around 3.50 which did not have much of an effect on inflation and unemployment as it was constant. After a few terms, the inflation started to drop dramatically and I thought keeping the federal fund rates at the same rate would help it return to it's normal rate. But the inflation started to drop even more so I tried to adjust the federal fund rates to match it. At one point in the game, the inflation and unemployment rate was ideal however the unemployment rate kept dropping even though I was adjusting the rates in an attempt to help it be more steady. I was not reappointed as my unemployment rate was significantly lower than my inflation rate.
Isabel Zhou
5th period
Radhika Daru
5th period
The basis of my strategy revolved around the idea that a higher federal funds rate is better for the economy. To pursue this strategy, I raised the federal funds rate by .50 for the first few quarters of the game. I continued this method until I achieved positive results. In the end, I was able to achieve a state of events in which millions get tax relief where large refund checks triggered a large spending spike. This was a good thing as it caused inflation rates to be quite low.
Shiv Patel
Period 2
At first, I did not really understand what the game entailed; however, as I read the instructions and played the game a couple of times, I was able to understand the overall concept and the goal of the game. Yet, every time I played, I was not successful. I would do fine for the first 3-5 quarters, then things would start to go awry. I would be able to fix the increasing unemployment rate by decreasing the funds rate, but regardless of what I did, the inflation would just keep going down, so I was not able to find a definite strategy within this game.
Period 2
I never got reappointed, so I guess I wasn't very good at the game. My primary strategy was to focus on inflation because it seemed harder to manipulate. But to do that, I would have to make radical increases in the budget, like jumps from 4 to 12, in one cycle. That strategy ended up overdoing the changes that I wanted, and made it hard to recover. One thing that I realized while playing is that there is a delay in your actions; any change that I made to the budget only seemed to take effect 2 cycles after. Because of that, I couldn't really come up with a definitive plan, since the game also hits the player with random scenarios. I finished most of my games with both inflation and unemployment being around their initial values, but maintaining both of them is almost impossible.
Once I lowered the price, unemployment shot through the roof while in only slightly rose. However once I held the steady price inflation started to rise rapidly, and even though unemployment rates were low inflation was out of control. I figured out that in order to try and stabilize the inflation I needed to increase prices rapidly and keep them increasing. Unfortunately this did not fix the inflation, it only slightly slowed inflation increase and causing unemployment rates to once again increase rapidly. Eventually the game ended with inflation and unemployment rates both hovering around 11%. After it ended I realized the only strategy that worked was to decrease unemployment while managing inflation.
Jordan Jacobson Period 2
At the start of the game, I wanted to see what would happened when I increased and decreased the Federal Funds rate. I noticed that when you increase the rate, unemployment decrease as inflation increases. After that when I lowered the funds rate to 3.75, I had a stock market crash and the unemployment rate when down to 1.50 and inflation went up to 5.56. I then tried to increase the funds to get back into the target area. But the more I increase the funds, the unemployment rate stayed the same at 1.50 and the inflation just kept increasing. I was not reappointed as my Funds rate was at 7.50, unemployment rate at 1.50, and inflation at 11.06
Abin Manuel
5th Period
I played the game like seven times and was never reappointed, and it made me feel the game was rigged. Every time I tried something there seemed to be something out of my control. One time I even raised the rate to 20% and the page stopped responding. I went in trying to keep unemployment as close to 5% and inflation close to 2% and even when I managed to sort of do that (unemployment was like 5.12% and inflation was like 3.ish%) I still wasn't reappointed. I kept trying to keep the economy at a stable basis, not too hot or too cold, by increasing the rate when unemployment was too low, and decreasing it when inflation was too high, and when that didn't get me what I wanted I tried the opposite, but I lost. In conclusion the game is rigged.
Aileen Ramirez
1st Period
The game was confusing at first, but i understood the concept after playing around with it. When I first started the game I kept federal funds low (3.5) which decreased unemployment, but the inflation rate started to rise. When I increased the federal funds, inflation kept rising. Throughout the game, I saw that when I increased or decreased the federal funds to either lower or increase unemployment or inflation, the other half started to have negative effects.
Raina Abraham
5th period
My strategy for the game was to decrease federal funds to lower unemployment and boost inflation, and increase federal funds to reduce inflation and increase unemployment. The reason behind increasing federal funds is so that it would help stimulate the economy when the people spent less. One factor that threw me off was the unexpected events that would make you alter your plans in order to ensure that you reach the best outcome possible.
Alexis Chan
5th Period
Jono Joseph
5th
I began the game by first seeing how the economy would do with leaving the funds rate at 4.00. unemployment decreased but inflation rose, so i decided to cut the rate a slight bit, to 3.75. unemployment decreased and inflation rose again, bringing all 3 lines closer together. The news brief warned about inflation ahead, so i decided to raise the fed funds rate. The rates continued with the same trend. I began simply experimenting with both raising and cutting funds. As the unemployment rate crept above the natural unemployment rate, I decided to increase funds to boost the economy. Unemployment continued to shoot up, but inflation began to go down. As i raised it more drastically, things began to balance out again. No matter what i did, inflation would not stop going down. Deflation began to become a real concern. I ended up working my way back to the initial fed funds rate of 4.00, and my economy ended up with a -1.60 inflation rate and 6.30 unemployment, which was not the best.
Elaine Thong
2nd period
Alwyn Joseph
5th period
The game really confused me at first and didn't get reappointed. No matter what i increased or decreased i couldn't seem to stop my inflation rates from going up. Eventually, I re read the instructions and realized the effects would take place over a long time, and that helped me do better for my first year to two years. (4 to 8 quarters) In the end, i still couldn't perfectly manipulate the inflation to my goals and didn't get to win the game.
While playing the game, it was very hard to counter the inflation rate, as it seemed to constantly go up, it didn't matter whether i cut or raised federal funds. After a few tries, however, I got the hang of it and started doing better. In the beginning, I could get only unemployment to decrease, but at the end, I got both to decrease and maintain a good level, which finally led to me being reappointed.
Mohammad Ejaz
4th period
Rayomand Hormuzdi
11/20/17
Period:1st
At my first time playing “The Fed Chairman game” I had no idea what was going on even after reading the help instructions. Inflation was going up too fast and I couldn’t control it so I lost the game . My second time at playing the game, I increased the funds rate to about 8 to control the inflation, but I also had to lessen the unemployment rate by decreasing the funds rate to around 1 or 2. The second time I finally won the game but the first try without any prior experience shows if this was a real life situation the economy I was running would be ruined.
The Fed Chairman Game, I felt like it wad a game full of random chance, the government couldn't control inflation because prices either always go up or government continues to prints out more money.
Jonathan Ngo, Period 2
After I played the game for a while I came up with the strategy ofincreasing federal funding, a idea of Keynes, to spark the economy. I had to tinker with the numbers to get it right but finally balanced out and as soon as inflation rose I raised interest
Stephen Kelly
Period 4
Lauryn Weller
4th period
At the beginning of the game, I was very confused and just messed around to figure out the trend. After a few games, I would increase and cut spending to regulate the inflation and unemployment rate. When spending was low I would increase government spending to spark the economy and help put money in consumers pocket. When spending increased I would try to balance it out by cutting government spending. Although I used this strategy at some points I still felt the game really was chance and you can't really control the full effects of the events of the economy.
Sainath Krishnamurthy
Period 4
I never got reappointed to i wasn't very good at the game. It was quite boring actually. I began with the initial set rate and watched the graph until it started to drive off course. I then shifted my attention on either inflation or unemployment depending on which one was performing worse. That strategy failed as I focused on one the other would start to take a bad turn. For the last final moves, I tried to keep both as controlled as I possibly could together. this strategy seemed to be more relevant by making small modifications to the rates. the effects of the second strategy by the end of the game made for a slightly better result, but I had started it too late to recover fully from my initial bad strategy and end with a bad result.
Matthew Reyes
Period 1
Before playing the game, I read the instructions. In the instructions, it stated that raising federal fund rates tighten monetary policy and reduces inflation while increasing unemployment rates. The opposite occurs when I decrease federal fund rates. With this knowledge, I tried to steer against the expectations it provided. Generally, if inflation rates rose, I would raise the federal fund rates and vice versa. It was confusing what to do at times, but I am still trying to figure out how the game works. However, overall, it seems like the game is essentially based on luck, as it has been proven difficult to cause a desirable outcome.
Swati Kundra
1st Period
This game was Quite difficult at first, especially when channeling the inflation and unemployment rate at a steady direction simutaneously, but with some manuevering I was able to bring inflation to 1.50% and inflation 7.3%. I have learned that the impact of government spending can affect the outcome of our economy and the job of the chair of the Federal Reserve must fully aware of what is happening in the economy and find ways to manipulate it for the betterment of it.
Natalie dye, 5th period
At first, I rose federal spending because unemployment was high and I wanted to reduce inflation. Suddenly, gas prives rose and it was hard to make a decision on what to do next because whatever I did would solve one issue but make one worse. I lost very quickly because inflation rates started rising higher than I could fix them. The game was very random and hard to comtrol, so having any kind of strategy but acting on what is immediately available was useless and harmful.
This game was really hard I tried diffrent strategies like if there was inflation I would decrease fed funds but that didn’t work I tried it the other way and didn’t work so I just decided to go randomly i found out to control a country is extremely hard - bill bradley 4th period
Sang Kirsten Ebueng
Period 2
The game was quite difficult and after playing through a few times I still could not get the hang of it. My strategy after my first attempt was too do use 2 quarters on the base level of federal funding, 2 quarters on .50% higher, and 2 quarters on .50% lower. I observed the effects the raised and lowered rates had on both inflation and unemployment. I found it very difficult to balance inflation and unemployment, though it was very clear that consistent federal fund rates over an extended period of time was not the best approach. Eventually one will catch up with the other and force the federal fund rates to change.
No matter what i did , i could not control what was going on in the inflation. Re reading the instructions didnt help. It shows how random it can go in real life . My goal was to raise the interest when the infation rose so i had to play with the numbers a little till it got steady. I ended up never winning the game
Tom Joseph
4th Period
When I started the game, I decided to reduce inflation by having a higher fed funds rate. However, in doing this the unemployment rate rose significantly and eventually the inflation became very low. To prevent this, I lowered the fed funds, which resulted in my unemployment rate approaching 5% and inflation rising near the end of the game. Unfortunately, I needed a few more terms in order for inflation to approach its natural rate. In the end, I got 4.81% for the unemployment rate -0.42% for my inflation rate. I was not reappointed.
I started the game with very volatile jumps and falls in the federal funds rate every term. This resulted in a widening gap between inflation and unemployment as prices fell and unemployment rose. In order to combat this, I steadied the federal funds rate to a .5 increase and decrease every term and unemployment equilibrated itself as inflation returned to normal levels. I ended the game by being reappointed, although throughout the game I failed to respond to the breaking news and mostly kept policy aligned with the data on the graph rather than external factors. By the end of the game, my inflation rate was 0.7% and my unemployment rate was 5.4%. The Fed chair clearly has major influence over the movement of money in the economy.
At the beginning of the game, I couldn't really figure out what to do. It took me two whole games to figure out how to work it and when I did it didn't really work.he federal funds at the beginning and the employment rates fell, but the inflation rate rose a lot. No matter what I did the inflation rate wouldn't drop but at the end, I set the federal funds to 5 and it was stable.
Sarika Vura
1st Period
Ayana Mathew
4thperiod
While playing the game, I noticed that as I increase the fund rate, both inflation and unemployment rate increased. So I put the fund rate to zero to see what happened, in fact, both the inflation and unemployment rate increased. However, I changed my fund rate to two then the unemployment rate decreased but the inflation rate still increased.
At first, when I began to play I decreased the fund rate to 3.25 and unemployment started to go down which was exciting, but after I kept it there I started to notice that inflation was increasing. So I continued to keep it there and the unemployment line and the inflation line crossed one another. So due to the increasing inflation, everyone started to have a job. Unemployment continued to decrease while inflation continued to rise.
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