This class was very helpful for me in giving me an idea of what I might expect for later classes, such as microeconomics. One thing I enjoyed learning about was international trade and tariffs because that was very relevant to today’s politics, and while I don’t usually discuss adult things such as politics with my friends, it’s helpful because it’ll help me understand what they’re talking about on the news better, which will make me feel like more of an adult. One area in which I changed my thinking was in the idea of “buy local.” I used to think the main reason to buy local was to support the economy, and now I understand that we need products from the outside coming in or the economy just wouldn’t work very well. I know understand the reason to buy local honey isn’t necessarily to support the local economy but because I simply prefer honey from Colorado.
The debate I consider most important was the one about policy makers trying to stabilize the economy. If we know the economy is going to fluctuate if left alone, then it just makes sense to me that the biggest question is should we mess with it to try to stabilize it? Or would that just bring human error into the equation and not be worth it?
I personally think policy makers should not try to stabilize the economy. It seems to me that, because of the time it takes for monetary and fiscal policies to actually have an effect on the economy and because the situation may be different by then, there’s not use in even trying to use an economic forecast that is highly imprecise. That’s just not how something as serious as the economy should be tampered with.
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