Fordham Students Challenge the Fed

On Thursday, Nov. 5, Fordham's Fed Challenge team won the first round of the New York Federal Reserve Bank's Fed Challenge. Fordham's team is one of six out of the starting 30 to move on to District semi-final and final rounds on Friday, Nov. 20.

The Fordham team consists of Andrew Vigliotta, Filippo Bianchi, and Robert Pergament, economics majors at Fordham College at Rose Hill; and Anu Joseph and Michael Cropano from the College of Business Administration. The team's faculty advisor is Mary Burke, Ph.D., clinical associate professor and associate chair for undergraduate education at Fordham.

The Fed Challenge is a competition in which teams of five students present an analysis of the overall U.S. economy as if they are part of the Federal Open Market Committee. Based on this economic analysis, they then must recommend specific monetary policy actions. The presentations are 20 minutes long and are followed by 15 minutes of questions from the judges.

The winning team of District’s final round will compete in the national finals at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Dec. 2.