New Project Ideas

For a while I've been thinking of a new writing project scenario for W331 reports.

Here's an idea.

You are a member of the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) chaired by Fed Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

The FOMC has a quarterly report on the economy which it releases to the public. In this report, the opinions of all the board members are graphed, aggregated and summarized. (See http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20071114a.htm)

Using a shortened format from this report, and publically available economic data, submit your "individual" version of such a report. You should include a summary explaining your position, graphs predicting the status of the following economic variables over the next four years, and text explaining those predictions. Based upon this data, you should also summarize, and make a recommendation for interest rates controlled by the FOMC.

Economic Data: Real PCE Inflation, Core PCE Inflation, Real GDP growth, unemployment rate,