On Nov. 17, 2006 a team of Etown students drove down to the Baltimore Federal Reserve to participate in the Fed Challenge Competition. The team members—Nick Bieber, Kyle Buffenmyer, Robert Qualls and Rachael Yearwood—were accompanied by economics professors Basanta Chaudhuri and Sanjay Paul. The group met Wednesday evenings in the fall semester to prepare for the competition, reading articles, discussing theoretical issues, and collecting data.

At the Baltimore Fed, the team used a slew of information about the state of the economy to argue that the Federal Reserve should keep rates unchanged for the immediate future, but raise them at subsequent meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee. Following the presentation, students fielded some tough questions from the Federal Reserve officials. All in all, a great learning experience for the students. Plus, they got to eat some taxpayer-funded cookies at the Fed.