Local Econ Team Moves on to Final

By Evan Krasomil, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.

Apr. 27–A Boulder High School team of advanced economics students will travel to Washington, D.C., this weekend to compete in the national championship of the Fed Challenge, a nationwide academic competition conducted by the Federal Reserve.

The Fed Challenge places competing teams of high school students from across the country in the role of the Federal Open Market Committee.

This year was the first time Boulder High fielded a team for the Fed Challenge. On March 1, the team won the regional competition in Denver. On March 29, it won the district championship in Kansas City. Between the two competitions, the team beat out 17 other teams from Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.

The Boulder High team consists of seniors Laura D’Ippolito, Sarah Stein, Wyatt Hosmer and Connor O’Steen and juniors Joey Baum and Fleet White.

During the competition, teams present a 15-minute proposal to raise, lower or maintain federal short-term interest rates. Afterward, students field 10 minutes of questions from a panel of Fed economists, who preside as judges.

The Federal Reserve has raised the important short-term interest rate — known as the federal funds rate — 15 times since June 2004 in an effort to curb inflation. The interest banks charge each other on overnight loans accordingly has increased, meaning loans for things like mortgages gradually are getting more expensive.

Should the Boulder High team win the national competition — which consists of two rounds and pits it against six other regional champions — it will receive $7,000 in scholarship money for each student, as well as $5,000 for the school’s economics program and $5,000 for the team’s coach.

Regardless of how the team places, though, each student on the team is guaranteed at least $1,500 in scholarship money. The team’s past success also guarantees $1,500 for Boulder High’s economics program and $1,000 for Boulder High teacher Richard Trinkner, the team’s coach.

The team’s trip to Washington, D.C., is fully paid by the Fed.

“They put us up in the nicest hotels,” Trinkner said. “They really spoil us.”

The team continues to meet and practice regularly; the numbers the students present and the questions they’ll face continually are changing. As a result, the presentation and recommendation they give in Washington, D.C., will differ from what the team did in the previous competitions.

“It’s changed a lot since the last presentation,” O’Steen said. “These last couple of times, it was clear that the Fed needed to raise interest rates. This time it’s not so sure.”

The team is hoping not only to put together another strong 15-minute presentation, but also is relying on a cogent performance during the question-and-answer session, which the team feels led it to success in the previous competitions.

“We have a lot of extraneous data that we don’t necessarily have in our presentation, but that we can bring out in the Q&A,” D’Ippolito said. “That’s definitely been our strength.”

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