My book, just out on Amazon, doesn’t predict what the Fed will do, but provides background on the Fed and how it works. It also introduces a process that classes and organizations can use to make their own analysis of the situation.

The Fed Watcher’s Handbook: Simulating the Federal Reserve in Classrooms and Organizations is available on Amazon either as a paperback or electronic Kindle version.

The book introduces the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), and a simulation I developed at New York University to make economics and monetary policy more relevant and easier to understand. I later used it at the MBA level, and I’m currently exploring its use as a team-building exercise for organizations.

In the simulation, participants become a member of the US central bank, either a district president or someone on the Board of Governors. The “Fed” is made up of 12 districts such as Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, New York, Dallas, etc. Participants have to study the bios of the Presidents or Governors and then report on their district.

Then we meet a day or two before the actual Federal Reserve meets and simulate their discussions and voting process to determine interest rates. We even collectively write the press release after the group decides. These activities allow them to compare the process and results of the simulation with what occurred at the actual Fed FOMC meeting.

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Anthony J. Pennings, PhD is the Professor of Global Media at Hannam University in South Korea. Previously, he taught at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas and was on the faculty of New York University from 2002-2012. He also taught at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand and was a Fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii in the 1990s.