Home : Search : Policy Archive
Economic policy often drives other
forms of policy. A nation's economic strength often dictates how much it
can afford to spend on public needs like health care, transportation,
science, or education. It can also affect a nation's ability to afford
new regulatory policies targeting things like the environment or safety
in the workplace.
More fundamentally, economic policy often drives elections, and elections affect issues across the policy spectrum. As a wag once noted when prioritizing the most important issues in a presidential campaign, "it's the economy, stupid."
Economic policy has many components, including fiscal policy (government spending and taxes), monetary policy (determining the size of the money supply), and regulatory policy in all its forms, including regulation of business, labor relations, consumer protection, and rules of international trade. In fact, most matters of public policy, even those that are not primarily economic in nature, have some impact on the economy.
Back to the Almanac of Policy Issues