Play Chair the Fed: A Monetary Policy Game. In the game, use the Learn More button and review the tight (contractionary) and easy (expansionary) tools of the Fed as well as the use of each. Briefly examine Your Job and FAQs. Then, play the game! You are the Fed Chairperson! You begin with 16 quarters (4 years), and then your job is up for review. You begin with rates at 4.0 percent Fed Funds Rate, inflation at 2.11 percent, and unemployment at 4.68 percent.

Introduce yourself to your peers by sharing something unique about your background. Explain how you expect this course will help you move forward in your current or future career. 
Make decisions on interest rates for the 16 quarters by adjusting the Fed Funds rate up or down. Summarize the changes you chose and explain your results. Do you still have a job? Why or why not?
Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates posts. 

Click here to watch the video
 Post by Thomas sills
 
Hi everyone, my name is Thom.  I’m a 41 year old going after a degree in business management with a concentration in social media marketing.  I’m actually in school right now after a back injury ended my career 6 years ago.  I feel that this course is going to benefit me a great deal because first, I’m terrible with money, and second, due to my unemployment status I am looking to learn more about how to invest in the stock market, and this class is perfect for me to learn as a beginner.  
Now, for this game, I thought it would be something along the lines of SimCity before I started it.  I did actually enjoy trying to get the economy into equilibrium, but after 5 tries, I seem to have broken the economy instead.  I was fired all 5 times.  I tried different strategies each time, starting with beginning low.  That resulted in an uncontrollable inflation boom of 11.20%, BUT my unemployment stayed at an astounding 1.5% for over half of my term.  The second attempt I started slightly higher, again, by the time it was rising quickly, I could not stop the bleeding of an overall 5.97% inflation and 2.21% unemployment.  For the last time I documented my results, I started extremely high, which saw inflation plummet to unsustainable levels in the negatives and forcing an unemployment rate that topped off at 11.88% before I could adjust enough to see real change.  The last 2 times I attempted it I came closer to the recommended rates, but was still fired.  Some of my news headlines included anything from “Household spending rises”, “government spending slows”, “drops in consumer confidence”, and “renewable energy surged”. 
Because a lot of how the interest rate is decided is guess work to a point, it wasn’t easy to predict exactly what was needed to put everything exactly where it should be.  The economy is not as easy as changing the interest rate and everything happening immediately, it’s more about gaining the confidence of the consumer so that spending can slowly raise rates, Case in point, once inflation began to rise quickly it took a severe drop in the interest rate for me to recognize a change 2 or 3 quarters afterward to inflation.  unemployment changed slightly faster.  Overall, I was fired every time, even when I kept everything fairly level.  I may try it again to see what happens though.