Pete Buttigeig - Sixth Annual Federal Reserve Citibank Cha

\u201cThis will curb an inflation threat and maintain
flexibility,\u201d Buttigieg said

St. Joseph students deliver state of the economy in contest

By TANIA ANDERSON

State News Service


WASHINGTON - They spent five months preparing for the moment that the suits
would walk into the conference room at the Federal Reserve.

They made a toast with their plastic cups of water and then
the five St. Joseph High School seniors carried out a flawless presentation on
the current U.S. and world economies and recommended that Federal Reserve
officials raise interest rates.

But in the end, they were not one of the four teams selected
Sunday for the final round of the sixth annual Fed Challenge, a national
two-day competition organized by the Federal Reserve to encourage high school
students to learn economics and analyze the factors that influence the U.S.
economy. Citibank awards scholarships to the winners.

Of course, they\u2019re disappointed, but there's no regret, said
Julie Chismar, the St. Joseph High School macro economics teacher who coached
the students through the competition.

The four winning teams represented St. Louis, Dallas, New
York and Richmond, Va.

But the St. Joseph students were still victorious, as they
were the first from the Chicago district to make it this far in the competition
an honor that they\u2019ve had dreams about.

The competition consisted of seven presentations on the
state of the economy, modeled on an actual meeting of the Federal Open Market
Committee. FOMC is tasked with forming the nation's monetary policy,
supervising and regulating banking institutions and protecting the credit
rights of consumers, maintaining the stability of the financial system, and
providing certain financial services to the U.S. government, the public,
financial institutions, and foreign official institutions.

They really have to be able to explain and analyze the
markets with experts as judges\u201d said Lloyd Bromberg Staff director for the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York \u201cIt\u2019s really remarkable to be able to present in a
room like that.\u201d

With Chismar looking on, the St. Joseph students each
analyzed a different aspect of the economy Michael Deogracias, who plans
to go to the University of Michigan, started with the gross domestic product.
Team captain James Mueller, who plans to attend Notre Dame, gave his
spiel on output growth production. Katie Ellgass, also planning to
attend Notre Dame, discussed employment. Gregory Noonan, another future
Notre Dame student, discussed the consumer sector. And then Harvard-bound
Peter Buttigieg wrapped up the presentation with an analysis of fiscal policy
and the world economy He also delivered the groups recommendation to increase
the interest rate by 25 basis points.

\u201cThis will curb an inflation threat and maintain
flexibility,\u201d Buttigieg said.

And then the grilling of questions came from the two judges,
who work as Federal Reserve officials. Questions ranged from advice on what do
with the discount rate to the relevancy of the 12 Federal Reserve banks

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