‘Chair the Fed’ makes monetary policy a video game

Think you can do a better job leading the nation’s monetary policy than Federal Reserve Board Chairwoman Janet Yellen? Here’s your chance.

{mosads}The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released “Chair the Fed” on Thursday, a web-based game that lets players take the reins of the nation’s central bank.

Players can raise or cut interest rates each quarter to maintain full employment and low inflation over a four-year term as chairman. Market booms and crises complicate the task, and players who can’t maintain strong economic conditions aren’t tapped for another term.

“The main underlying motivation for the ‘Chair the Fed’ game was to give some sense, some inkling of what monetary policy makers face in the real world,” said Glenn Rudebusch, executive vice president at the San Francisco Fed, in a video explaining the game. 

The game is modeled after a 1990s version hosted in San Francisco Fed that focused on adjusting monetary supply, said Rudebusch.