Office of the Secretary of the Treasury

[jokerman]

This is the office of the Secretary of the Treasury

[King]

I think I left my car keys here...let me check my old office.

[Sam Spade]

lol@King.

Good luck with everything, Preston.

[The Duke]

Clark Kent, Daily Planet.

Mr. Secretary, what is the administration's positions on Senator Hughento's GST proposal?

[King]

Clark Kent, Daily Planet.

Mr. Secretary, what is the administration's positions on Senator Hughento's GST proposal?

I'd wait until Hugh actually shows some legislation before you start asking that question. 

Has Preston said the correct oath yet or is this seat still vacant?

[The Duke]

No.  Maybe the enxt guy will now want to do that, but I'm already doing fine with it.

[The Duke]

We already have a budget and economy.  We've just never passed an actual omnibus budget, and if one doesn't get passed by month's end, things are going to get a little grim on Wall Street.

Don't waste your time screwing with simulators, I'll determine what GDP growth, inflation, and unemployment are.

ADDENDUM: The first one is just bad economics.  For starters, I had GDP growth go from +13% to -1% in one year from a slight tweak in the money supply.  For starters, the US economy will never grow 13% in one year, nor will it have a 14% swing in one year.  The government spending and taxes is shown as being 20% of GDP at the start, but its actually more like 32%.  The game is also WAY oversensitive to the money supply variable, which renders it useless to use in practical terms since we have no Fed Chariman.  It presumes that the budget deficit is a driver of inflation, since any deficit sends inflation spiraling.  I can do better just making sh**t up.

[Gabu]

http://faculty.insead.fr/fatas/econ/Presidential%20Game.htm
This is one is free and I've actually played it.  It creates a simulated economy and calculates the dynamics and changes of it by your adjustments in monetary and fiscal policy.  Unfortunately, it dosen't get very detailed in control, it only lasts 16 years, and it is based on a 1 year-cycle, even though we would likely end up working on a 1 month-cycle.

Uh, I increased Gov't Spending/GDP by 1% and went from having a 70% approval rating to being impeached.

I have yet to make it through all 16 years once.

EDIT: Never mind, I just won with 75% approval after realizing how useful the detailed economic report was.

[The Duke]

http://faculty.insead.fr/fatas/econ/Presidential%20Game.htm
This is one is free and I've actually played it.  It creates a simulated economy and calculates the dynamics and changes of it by your adjustments in monetary and fiscal policy.  Unfortunately, it dosen't get very detailed in control, it only lasts 16 years, and it is based on a 1 year-cycle, even though we would likely end up working on a 1 month-cycle.

Uh, I increased Gov't Spending/GDP by 1% and went from having a 70% approval rating to being impeached.

I have yet to make it through all 16 years once.

EDIT: Never mind, I just won with 75% approval after realizing how useful the detailed economic report was.

You'll do better if you don't adjust anything.  That's how I got my best results.

[Gabu]

http://faculty.insead.fr/fatas/econ/Presidential%20Game.htm
This is one is free and I've actually played it.  It creates a simulated economy and calculates the dynamics and changes of it by your adjustments in monetary and fiscal policy.  Unfortunately, it dosen't get very detailed in control, it only lasts 16 years, and it is based on a 1 year-cycle, even though we would likely end up working on a 1 month-cycle.

Uh, I increased Gov't Spending/GDP by 1% and went from having a 70% approval rating to being impeached.

I have yet to make it through all 16 years once.

EDIT: Never mind, I just won with 75% approval after realizing how useful the detailed economic report was.

You'll do better if you don't adjust anything.  That's how I got my best results.

I did that once and left office with an approval rating of 6.7%.   It hovered around 30% for a bit and then tanked 24 points for whatever reason.

EDIT: I think that Bono would like this game; I found that the easiest way to have a huge win is to just drop taxes and government spending as far down as they'll go and then make money growth 0.3.  Then just hit "enact these policies" over and over and watch your approval rating soar and America prosper.

EDIT #2: Okay, this game is officially screwed up; for half of my term I did the above and then, for fun, for the other half I jacked money growth up to 15% and both taxes and spending up to 30%.  This strategy somehow worked and I somehow left office with an 87% approval rating and was ranked #1 when I finished with a score of 99.95.

[The Duke]

Yeah, maybe you're right.  We should hand it over to a computer.  After all, it worked for college football.

[Gabu]

We need something more than just one person spitting out numbers.  We need an actual realistic and unbiased (not that GM Ford is in particular) calculations of our government's impact on the US economy.  Our economy is just too dynamic for that.

Any simulation was programmed by a human with opinions and is likely to have its own biases in it.  I personally trust John Ford to be fair; I don't think we need a mechanized version of it.  If John Ford suddenly makes our economy crash the moment we do something he disagrees with, then I'll reconsider.

[The Duke]

We need something more than just one person spitting out numbers.  We need an actual realistic and unbiased (not that GM Ford is in particular) calculations of our government's impact on the US economy.  Our economy is just too dynamic for that.

Any simulation was programmed by a human with opinions and is likely to have its own biases in it.  I personally trust John Ford to be fair; I don't think we need a mechanized version of it.  If John Ford suddenly makes our economy crash the moment we do something he disagrees with, then I'll reconsider.

I figured out how to win.  Keep a budget in surplus while lowering spending and cutting taxes, inject liquidity whenever you can get away with it.

[Gabu]

We need something more than just one person spitting out numbers.  We need an actual realistic and unbiased (not that GM Ford is in particular) calculations of our government's impact on the US economy.  Our economy is just too dynamic for that.

Any simulation was programmed by a human with opinions and is likely to have its own biases in it.  I personally trust John Ford to be fair; I don't think we need a mechanized version of it.  If John Ford suddenly makes our economy crash the moment we do something he disagrees with, then I'll reconsider.

I figured out how to win.  Keep a budget in surplus while lowering spending and cutting taxes, inject liquidity whenever you can get away with it.

I find it more fun to try and make things as bad as I possibly can.  I just beat my old record by being impeached with an approval rating of 7%, with 18.7% unemployment and -22.7% output growth.

[Gabu]

~Declaration by the Secretary of the Treasury~

I mandate that all automobiles purchased by the Treasury Department and it's sub-departments in the Atlasian government model must have a fuel efficiency of at least 30 miles per gallon except in that case that their is no vehicles that adhere to those standards that can be used to accomplish the nessacary task or job for that vehicle.

I call on other cabinent leaders to join me in this by doing the same for their department.

I think that the Department of Defense might have difficulty with that.