CONSUMERS : Computer Exhibit Helps Users Make Sense Out of Money
Want to know what supply and demand means in practical terms? Want to pretend you’re the President and set policies for taxes and spending? Take a trip to the best kept secret in Downtown--the hands-on computer exhibit about money at the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Thirty students from the honors economics class at Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, near San Diego, tested their computer skills recently during a tour of the World of Economics Exhibition at the Fed branch at Grand Avenue and Olympic Boulevard.
The computer exhibit’s biggest hit seemed to be Muffin Mogul, which lets players test their understanding of supply and demand by running a muffin shop, deciding each day--as the computer adds factors--what to charge per muffin to make a profit. At game’s end, the computer tells how well, or how poorly, you did in business skills.
“We thought this would be a good experience since we’re studying economics,” said senior Benton Dorman. “I personally like the fact that they (the computers) are interactive.”
Dorman and classmates probably fared well on Muffin Mogul because they had first-hand experience in running a business. Last October, as a class project, they founded the Early Morning Bean Co.--so named because the class meets at 6:40 a.m.--and went into business. They borrowed $400 from a bank and set up shop, selling glass jars of beans for making soup. Their jars, filled with beans, spices and a soup recipe, sold for $5.
“We set up a class assembly line for filling the jars and then went around selling them to everyone,” Dorman explained. “We paid back the loan in three weeks, rather than in two months, then reinvested it to make more money.”
The students made a profit of $1,400, said teacher Richard Carlson. Part of their earnings financed their Federal Reserve trip; the rest will be used for another class outing, probably a night at Disneyland. The leftover beans were donated to a local soup kitchen for the homeless.
“The project showed just how much time you have to devote to a business,” Dorman said. “A lot.”
Another class video favorite at the museum was the Making Fiscal Policy game, where players serve as the President and try to set up sound tax and spending policies to “promote low unemployment, low inflation and steady growth.” No simple task, the Monte Vista students learned.
A series of economic displays shows how money travels through society and explains what can happen if there’s too much money or too little. Or you can watch as dollars circulate through the economy from banks to consumers to businesses and back.
The high-tech exhibit, the only one of its kind in this area, opened in 1987. It is based on a similar computerized model at the San Francisco Fed, one of the nation’s 12 regional reserve banks, done in 1983 by Howard Lathrop & Associates, a Santa Monica architectural design firm.
The Los Angeles model was adapted by Gensler & Associates, an architectural and interior design company with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
“It’s particularly exciting to create a place where people have fun and get an education while they’re at it,” said Ed Friedrichs, vice president of Gensler & Associates, explaining that he also uses the exhibit. “I find it one of the best educational tools in Los Angeles. I take my 12-year-old son there. I think it’s a terrific exhibit, but the problem is, nobody knows about it. There’s never anybody there.”
Sandy Conlan, of the Los Angeles Fed branch, said word about the exhibition has gone to the schools and to the economic and business communities in Southern California. But the general public “seems to have missed it. We don’t get a lot of foot traffic in this area yet, but expect to when all the buildings around here are completed.”
Consumers may tour the exhibit free Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is a booklet that explains each facet of the exhibit.
Besides the exhibit, there are prescheduled tours of the Fed itself and numerous free pamphlets for consumers, including booklets explaining how to obtain your credit rating, when your money will be available after you make a bank deposit, how to refinance your mortgage, how to pay off a loan early and how to file a consumer credit complaint.
For youngsters, there are comic books (in English and Spanish) telling the story of the history of money, of banks and thrifts, of inflation, of checks and electronic payments.
School groups also are offered numerous programs with films and videotapes.
The Fed public relations department will schedule school and other group tours of the bank (call (213) 683-2904 for more information).
This comprehensive tour shows visitors how the Fed works; how coins, currency and checks come into the bank and are counted, sorted and sent back to various banking institutions; how the Fed can influence the country’s money supply by increasing or decreasing reserves, and how counterfeit bills that come in are culled from the real ones, stamped “counterfeit” and sent to the U.S. Secret Service.
Said Conlan: “The Federal Reserve really takes seriously the problem of reaching out and helping people understand how money affects their lives.”
