Politicians and Macroeconomics Politicians Come From Many

Politicians and Macroeconomics

Politicians come from many different backgrounds: educational, social, and financial. This in turn affects just about every decision that is made once these individuals are in office. With so many diverse backgrounds dealing with the same issue that affects millions of people, they are coming with different experiences, yet are expected to make these decisions without necessarily having had dealt with them before. This is the case with macroeconomics. The behavior of macroeconomics is affected by the behavior of the politicians that control and drive it (Mankiw 2009). The ignorance of one politician throws the entire system off.

Politicians today do not necessarily understand macroeconomics. In order for an economy to succeed, and in order for financial gains to be made, stability needs to be a key component of any economy (Mankiw 2009). However, politicians will never truly understand what it means in economical terms to really lift an economy from the bottom. Politicians are good at selling their ideas, at giving way to their individual experiences, but because they decide everything and propose everything based on what they have personally seen, or what they personally think will work, the economy gets stunted (The New York Times 2011). Nothing moves anywhere. It can be good to get different perspectives on pressing issues, but personal believes and ideologies get in the way of their ability to properly deal with macroeconomics. An economist would see macroeconomics for what it is, the structure and performance of an entire system, not just the small parts that make it up (Mankiw 2009). Politicians get stuck on only getting their personal ideas through, or the collective ideas of their specific political party, that in the end, nothing happens (Zeleny & Parker 2011).

Today's most pressing economic issue is how to stimulate economic growth in today's recession. This is the perfect example of how personal agendas have been inhibiting any progress from occurring. Both political parties, Democratic and Republican, have different visions on how growth will be stimulated through macroeconomic policies. Democrats believe in government spending and increasing taxes on the upper class American society, while Republicans believe in tax breaks and cutting regulation in efforts to promote corporate growth and expansion (The New York Times 2011). While there is merit to both ideas, their economic policies are based on political belief, which doesn't benefit American society as a whole. Truly comprehensive economic policy that stimulates growth with be something that incorporates both ideas. But both political parties are so partisan that they cannot agree on compromise and cannot come up with an actual comprehensive solution. These disagreements unfortunately have a bigger affect than just political party rivalry because while politicians are going at each other for things that they disagree with, the American people are just waiting for a solution to an economic problem that seems to be growing more and more each day. This clearly shows the disregard from politicians to take into account macroeconomics.