Young Economists Get a Chance to Feel Like Alan Greenspan

For three months, they acted like buttoned-down bankers, studying global stock market fluctuations and changes in the consumer price index and boning up on unemployment rates and inflation indicators.

For an intense 15 minutes, they acted like financial whiz Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve Bank’s Open Market Committee, debating whether short-term interest rates should go up or down.

And then, for a brief moment Tuesday, 10 North Hollywood High School students acted like typical giddy teenagers--erupting with cheers and hugs as they were named winners of the West Coast’s first “Fed Challenge” economics contest.

The teenagers’ argument for maintaining the current federal interest rate was convincing enough to win $36,000 and a free trip to Washington for a chance at $50,000 in prize money from the Federal Reserve Bank.

“Before this, a lot of us had never understood exactly what the Federal Reserve does,” said senior Diana Hong, 17, aligning herself with the vast majority of adults. “Some of our fellow students have never even heard of Alan Greenspan.”

Eight hundred Southern California high schools were invited to participate in the contest by local Federal Reserve officials as a way to encourage careers in economics.

Students from the eight Los Angeles-area high schools that ended up competing Tuesday offered a variety of interpretations of what it is like when the dour Federal Reserve chairman and his important committee sit down to decide how to control America’s money supply.

Glendora High School’s Philip Marvin, 18, portrayed Greenspan conducting a hearing, soliciting testimony from classmates playing the roles of business owners, executives and consumers.

Temple City High’s Brian Weiss, 17, showed Greenspan as a genial, democratic consensus-seeker mindful of dissidents on his mock committee.

Sherman Oaks’ Notre Dame High pictured Greenspan as a fanciful tour guide. Chad Murray, 18, led 17-year-old Hasmik Badalian, dressed as the Statue of Liberty, over plywood cutout “mountains” to a hilltop labeled 2000. As she moved forward in time, Hasmik raised and lowered a stick that represented interest rates moving up and down.

Students from the California Academy of Math and Science in Carson borrowed the give and take of a business meeting to depict Greenspan’s committee at work. “We decided it would be dry and boring if one person talked for a long time,” said Daniel Tien, 17.

El Segundo High had planned a formal presentation but decided at the last minute to be more freewheeling to keep from boring the judges, said Shireen Husain, 17.

The judges--economic experts Jim Charkins, Jack Kyser, Jan Moulton, J. Gordon Palmer Jr. and Howard Roth--weren’t bored.

“These are darn bright kids,” said Kyser, an economic analyst with the private Economic Development Corp., an organization seeking to expand the economic base of the Los Angeles area.

Winning North Hollywood students--who are all 17--included Mani Foroohar, Jonathan Stout, Jonah Lehrer, Patrick Yeghnazar and alternate Ladan Hagar in addition to Hong. Student researchers who compiled economic statistics for the team were Jackie Wong, Raymond Zimmer, Raymond Tsai and Mark Sandstrom.

The team will divvy up the $20,000 first prize, which contest officials specified is to be used as scholarship funding. North Hollywood High will receive $11,000 to use for an economics lab and team sponsor Carla Schiller, a social studies teacher, received a $5,000 cash prize.

Tuesday’s contest added to a string of victories at North Hollywood High, a magnet school. Last year, magnet students won a Department of Water and Power-sponsored Science Bowl.

Students said they stayed up all night Monday at Lehrer’s house studying . Lehrer credited the teacher with their success.

“She went out at midnight to 7-Eleven and bought us Kit Kats, Starblasters and Haagen-Dazs ice cream,” he said.