Looking for a Hero...
Ok this is pretty low, but I'm pretty fed up with my macro-econ homework and can't get ahold of my MBA boyfriend/emeregency tutor. So. Anyone care to show off their genius (or just show that you "get it")? I've got only the most tenuous grasp on this stuff but I'm *this* close to being finished with the course (well close minus a term paper and final). I just read the last chapter, one on "Macroeconomic Policy Challenges" and here's where I'm stuck:
Q4 You have been hired to draw up an economic plan that will maximize the chance that the President will be re-elected. (ha! on so many levels).
a) What are the macroeconomic stabilization policy elements in that plan?
b) What do you have to make the economy do in an election year?
c) What policy actions would help the President achieve re-election?
My problem: What is the difference between a and c? My answer for a is (don't laugh!): "The president needs to have a plan for long term economic growth. This might include investment in human capital, technological capital and plans to increase national saving. To support these goals, the president could introduce such initiatives as improving schools or programs to retrain adults, creating incentives for technological research and development, and the creation of new government spending and taxing policies.", but I'm not sure if this is on the right track or it is actually the answer for c. My answer for b is a succint: "The economy needs to be in an expansion before an election for the president to win". Without having read my textbook (and that actually might be a benefit) anyone got any guidance?
posted by jaclyn @ 10/03/2005
1 Comments:
Easy.
a.) Middle- and Lower-class U.S. citizens are scared shitless, so you have to continue the intimidation. Scare them by saying that a Democrat will allow China or, you know, Jupiter to take over the United States. Then you roger their asses once you're elected by keeping minimum wage down and forgetting that they exist.
b.) You have to boost it. You have to make people feel good. Give the rich tax cuts, for example. Give minorities a bit more spending power. You know, get people to the malls and inside movie theaters. Once their backs are turned, that's when you repeal or back out of treaties, like the environmentally sound Kyoto Protocol, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
c.) The Democratic contender would, as he has since the 2000 election year, have to be a pretentious blathering idiot who either has no opinion about anything or simply agrees with whomever it is he's speaking to on that particular day. (Also congress would need to make a slight alteration to the Constitution. The loophole to that would entail the RNC electing Jeb, which would pretty much keep one man in office for a potential 20 years, what with George I, George II and then two wins for old Jebediah. After the last six years, anything's possible.)
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