(BQ) Part 2 book "Macroeconomics" has contents: Fiscal policy, money and banking, monetary policy, economic growth, development economies, globalization, consumer choice, profit maximization, perfect competition, monopolistic competition and oligopoly,.and other contents. | Find more at Chapter 11 © Solaria/Shutterstock Fiscal Policy Fundamental Questions 1 | How can fiscal policy eliminate a GDP gap? 3 | What are the effects of budget deficits? 2 | How has . fiscal policy changed over time? 4 | How does fiscal policy differ across countries? Macroeconomics plays a key role in national politics. When Jimmy Carter ran for the presidency against Gerald Ford in 1976, he created a “misery index” to measure the state of the economy. The index was the sum of the inflation rate and the unemployment rate, and Carter showed that it had risen during Ford’s term in office. When Ronald Reagan challenged Carter in 1980, he used the misery index to show that inflation and unemployment had gone up during the Carter years as well. The implication is that presidents are responsible for the condition of the economy. If the inflation rate or the unemployment rate is relatively high coming into an election year, an incumbent president is open to criticism by opponents. For instance, many people believe that George Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton in 1992 because of the recession that began in 1990—a recession that was not announced as having ended in March 1991 until after the election. Clinton’s 1992 campaign made economic growth a focus of its attacks on Bush, and his 1996 campaign emphasized the strength of the economy. In 1996, a healthy economy helped Clinton defeat Bob Dole. And in the election of 2004, Bush supporters made economic growth a major focal point of their campaign against Kerry. More recently, Barack Obama’s successful campaign for president had economic issues as a leading concern with the . recession beginning in 2008. This was 241 Find more at 242 Part Three Microeconomic Policy Fiscal policy includes government spending on the provision of goods and services as well as infrastructure. In this photo, workers create mud bricks in the desert. The bricks will be used in .
