Caroline Baum calls it preparing a “new class of leaders,” but this is just another pathetic case of government and universities (I repeat myself) educating young people to think completely inside the limits set for them and become tyrants and central planners faithful to the state. Of course, the only point of debate is how peoples’ lives should be dictated and regulated and engineered, not whether or not monetary policy is ethical, or whether it actually accomplishes economic objectives.

Dressed in suits, accompanied by faculty advisers and armed with elaborate PowerPoint presentations, teams of three to five undergraduate students present their analysis of current economic conditions, forecast for the economy, assessment of risks and recommendation for policy.

In other words, it’s just like a Fed meeting, without the refreshments and the headaches policy makers endure in their effort to stay no more than two steps behind the crisis.

Team members address one another as “Chairman Amin” and “Governor Cohen.” One team has a token hawk who argues against lowering the benchmark interest rate from its current 1 percent.

The students compose a statement to be released to the public at the conclusion of the meeting. One Fed chairman has taken it upon himself to draft the statement in advance, a Greenspan touch that was not lost on this observer

Baum adds, “As the finals get under way Friday afternoon with the four teams that have made the cut, Bromberg emphasizes that it’s not about competing or winning. All the students are winners, he says, even if they don’t qualify for the monetary awards established by the Moody’s Foundation.” First, one can’t help but note the standard government code that “everyone wins.” Second, perhaps Miss Baum should have questioned how government policy can be measured in terms of an objective win or loss, since profit or loss cannot be quantitatively measured. And of course, government policy has its winners (people who benefit from the redistribution and theft) and its losers (people who are looted to provide the booty for the planners and their policy games). I am usually a fan of Miss Baum’s, but this time she slipped off the back end of the common sense boat.