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Friday, March 18, 2011 - 02:56 am  http://www.theeconomystupid.eu/introduction.html Pit your skills against the machine! I'm curious to see how you guys will fare.
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| Friday, March 18, 2011 - 03:35 am I got re-elected LAWL! No, I'll try it in the morning. Are you testing our economic and political wits LG?
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| Saturday, March 19, 2011 - 02:59 am Just economical, actually. I'm curious to know if "regular" people can win the game or not.
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| Saturday, March 19, 2011 - 05:22 am regular, LMAO
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| Saturday, March 19, 2011 - 06:21 am I only won with 50.6% third time round, but I was overthrown before the end the first two times.
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| Saturday, March 19, 2011 - 09:23 am I didn't quite make it. I was assassinated before I could complete my term. (boo hoo). Does this make me irregular????
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| Saturday, March 19, 2011 - 04:35 pm I broke the game. Basically just fiddled around with stuff until the last 2 turns before the election, then on the turn of the election, I dropped income tax to 0% and was re-elected with 20% more votes than expected. So yeah, bribery does work.
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| Sunday, March 27, 2011 - 04:24 pm http://i.imgur.com/dA84A.png
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| Sunday, March 27, 2011 - 04:43 pm LG they kicked me out with 7 turns to go. Basically what I got out of it was raising taxes starts the downward spiral. Reacting to the papers got me into more trouble than doing nothing at all. Once you manipulate the variables too much in a short period of time, there is no plausible way to recover. That is basically what happened to me, except I only prolonged the eventual outcome. Anything short of lowering taxes = fail. On the bright side at least I wasn't assassinated.
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| Sunday, March 27, 2011 - 05:05 pm *****SPOILER ALERT***** I have a bunch of different tricks that got me to the end without a major crisis. Maintained about 65% of the vote right up until the end, before going hog wild. It didn't seem possible to actually get unemployment under control (i.e. below 15%), but if you keep retirees & private workers (the two largest groups) happy you're not gonna get thrown out. Basically I cut unemployment benefits in half right off the bat, and cut public worker compensation to the bare minimum immediately. A third of your public workers will disappear immediately, making their opinion of you meaningless. You then spend the savings on reduced VAT tax and increased retirement benefits. Reduced VAT (keep it around 18%, maybe a point or two higher if inflation is high) will encourage investment and consumption throughout the game, especially combined with low inflation. Income tax around 18% is good, to keep people happy, but you want to actually increase this when you see private worker compensation going through the roof. If you don't increase it (and reap the profits!), what you'll find is private worker compensation will get so high that the labor market overheats and kills hiring - the unemployment rate will skyrocket not just in spite of, but *because of* your low-tax policy. I kept retiree income at $1000 all the while - a level that fosters consumption and makes retirees happy due to "high income" but won't break the bank. Doing all of this, you'll just about break even on your budget surplus/deficit. Never do anything specifically because there's a deficit or a surplus - that'll get you annihilated. Leave your surplus alone and pocket it, and suffer through your deficit, and in the end you may do better than my 41% debt-to-GDP ratio. I took my 41% debt-to-GDP and went on a little spending spree in the last 6 or 7 turns by boosting retiree and unemployment income a hundred bucks every turn or two (although keeping below private worker levels), while cutting VAT taxes a point or two every turn. The extra growth means that the lower tax rates are a wash in the short-term, so your debt-to-GDP won't increase significantly - you should be around 65% to 70% approval rating with 40 to 42% debt-to-GDP. Unemployment will have fallen to around 4 or 5 percent, although it's not sustainable because it's dependent on the artificially strong growth rate. Then in the last couple of turns, figure what percentage of your GDP you can spend to get up to 50% debt-to-GDP while conferring the greatest possible short-term economic advantage, and do a small fraction of that on the second to last turn, and then blow all the remaining cash on the last turn. Wildly lower taxes and drastically higher spending. Inflation and investment rates be damned at this point. Election day arrives and voila, 90% approval! *****End Spoiler alert***** If anyone has a way to balance all the competing priorities, I'd love to hear it. Also, if you made it through with a lower debt-to-GDP at the end-game, massive GDP, or a higher approval rating at the end, please share.
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| Sunday, March 27, 2011 - 06:11 pm I was wondering how you would all fare, because one of my professors showed the game to me, and I told him anyone who reached the end could win the game. He then told me most people he showed it to have a hard time reaching the end. As for what I do, I balance the budget by increasing revenue. The balance doesn't have to be a surplus, but the deficit should be at least in line with the growth rate. I ignore everything else. Comes the last month, and I use the old political trick of dropping taxes. The max I've reached has been about 85%. As my professor said, "this result places me among democracy's greatest heroes like Saddam." I played the game using several strategies and with different goals. In one of them I decided to drop unemployment and I won with 60% with no dirty tricks.
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| Sunday, March 27, 2011 - 06:20 pm The max I've reached has been about 85%. As my professor said, "this result places me among democracy's greatest heroes like Saddam." LoL Saddam was one of my all time favorites. I think he got the crappy end of the stick.
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| Sunday, March 27, 2011 - 10:20 pm LOL, 85% = dictator = Saddam Cut taxes first, reduce unemployment and retirement income, then when the economy takes off cut spending, which gives a surplus Later when the world economy tanks, increase spending. Raise retirement income and a small tax cut near the end.
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| Monday, March 28, 2011 - 04:51 pm I got to 13 turns to go and got so fed up with the demands of the people that I just became a tyrant!
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| Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:10 am Stupid thing kept crashing before I could finish the game! I managed to get an approval rating of 60% without a drastic tax cut.
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| Saturday, April 2, 2011 - 03:38 pm Did some experimenting with the game, finally managed to finish a game with -1.0% of the votes. I either suspect maxed taxes without any benefits or public funding or voter fraud on the part of my opponent.
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| Monday, April 4, 2011 - 12:32 am lol!
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