For release: March 7, 2002
Contact: Lyn Haralson, (501) 324-8240; Charles B. Henderson, (314) 444-8311

Cabot High School Team Wins Little Rock Area "Fed Challenge"

LITTLE ROCK -- A team of five students from Cabot High School won the Little Rock area "Fed Challenge," an economics competition sponsored by the Little Rock Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. A team from Catholic High School for Boys captured second place and a team from Bentonville High came in third.

The students from Cabot High are Adam Ward, Eric Crowley, Meredith Gossen, Regan Wilson, Richard Gray and Sonja McNeir. Their teacher is Mike Calvert.

Each team made a 15-minute presentation, based on their research of economic conditions and reflecting their recommended course of action for monetary policy. These presentations were made before a panel of judges in a mock Federal Open Market Committee format. The teams then answered questions based on their presentations and research.

The judges for the Little Rock competition were Robert Hopkins, vice president and manager of the St. Louis Fed's Little Rock Branch; Dr. Ashvin Vibhakar, director of the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; and Lindley Smith, retired owner of First Community Bank of Pocahontas.

On April 3, the Cabot High team will compete in Memphis at the District competition against the winning teams from Louisville, Memphis and St. Louis. The winner of that round will then represent the Eighth District at the Federal Reserve System's national competition May 4-6 in Washington, D.C.

With branches in Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis serves the Eighth Federal Reserve District, which includes all of Arkansas, eastern Missouri, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. In addition to serving as a bank for depository institutions and the U.S. government, each Reserve Bank monitors economic conditions in the District, participates in formulating monetary policy, and supervises state-chartered member banks and bank holding companies to foster safety and soundness of the District's banking and financial institutions and to protect the credit rights of consumers.

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