The mission statement of the Seidman College of Business begins by stating that it “provides a rigorous learning environment, with a student focus, a regional commitment, and a global perspective.” The Grand Valley Economics Club, as one of its official registered student organizations, stands behind this mission and is all about expanding students learning experiences beyond the campus and one of the ways we do this is by competing in the Fed Challenge held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

For the past 3 years, Grand Valley has went up against other teams from schools including the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. The competition, consisting of four member teams, forces participants to apply analytical economic skills taught in the classroom to the real world by simulating a Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Real FOMC meetings are held approximately every 6-8 weeks in Washington D.C. While much occurs at these meetings, the most well-known is the setting of the federal funds target rate. This is better known in the vernacular as interest rates. If that still doesn’t ring a bell, it was the organization of which the venerable Alan Greenspan was, until his recent retirement, the Chairman.

Under the auspices of both the economics faculty and our coach Dr. Daniel Giedeman we analyze current monetary policy and economic data from multiple sources which culminated in a twenty minute presentation to a panel of professional research economists employed a t the Fed; questions were then taken from the panel regarding our presentation as well as the current and future state of monetary and economic affairs.

When asked about their experience everyone agreed that while there were many hours of work done outside the classroom the end result of presenting at the Fed and having the opportunity to gain such a vast amount of knowledge on how macroeconomic policy is actually formulated was well worth the effort! Former team member Brian Bakker stated that:

The competition is a great way to bond as a team, develop better presentation and analytical skills, learn from other's presentations, and get a great look into current economic issues.

In past years we have taken advantage of many opportunities including a dry run in which presentation and speaking skills were evaluated and honed by the economics and finance faculty as well as representatives from both the Undergraduate Services and Dean’s Office. Truly this is the embodiment of Seidman’s Mission: a student-focused group given the opportunity to apply knowledge gained at Seidman to a presentation at a regional bank concerning issues of global significance.

To view our 2008 powerpoint click here.