Economics is easily one of the most important driving forces in public policy (and the private sector). As a bit of an intro to this section, here's a quote from Tim Harford (from his rather good book, The Undercover Economist) to give some context.

"... you will often hear so-called experts complaining that taxes on driving or on pollution are bad for the economy. That sounds worrying. But what is 'the economy'? If you spend enough time watching Bloomberg Television or reading the Wall Street Journal you may come to the rather mistaken impression that 'the economy' is a bunch of rather dull statistics with names like GDP (gross domestic product). GDP measures the total cost of producing everything in the economy in one year - for instance, one extra cappucino would add £1.85 to GDP, or a little less if some of the ingredients were imported.

And if you think this is 'the economy', then the experts may be right. A pollution tax may well make a number like GDP smaller. But who cares? Certainly not economists. We know that GDP measures a lot of things that are harmful (sales of weapons, shoddy building work with subsequent expensive repairs, expenditures on commuting*) and misses lots of things that are important, such as looking after your children or going for a walk in the mountains.

Most economics has very little to do with GDP. Economics is about who gets what and why."

 

* this makes sense in the context of the book - if you're into economics, I highly recommend buying or borrowing a copy and giving it a read - it's very well written and explains the key economic issues in plain, everyday language using examples that people can relate to.