Economy Simulation

Economic Simulation is a switch on the setup screen. With it on, the dashboard shows five economic indicators, and every policy the president enacts is judged against them at the end of the month. The setup screen's own description says it tracks GDP, unemployment, inflation and the national debt, and that the president's policies affect the economy. It is the most-rated toggle in the game, because the economy has behaved unpredictably since launch. This is a known problem, and work on it is ongoing.

What it tracks

The switch adds five figures to the dashboard: GDP growth, unemployment, inflation, the yearly budget balance, and the national debt. A game that starts without a named scenario begins with modest growth, low unemployment and inflation, a deficit measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and a national debt measured in the tens of trillions. A named scenario, or a custom game built on one, can start with its own figures instead, but only when the switch is on. Each of the five indicators is described in full on Economy statistics.

What happens each month

The economy is judged after a policy has been through Checks and Balances, if that switch is also on, so the game reacts to what the policy actually did once enacted rather than to what the president originally proposed. The judgement covers two things: a change to growth, unemployment and inflation, on the understanding that most policies move these only slightly and only a genuinely transformative policy moves any of them by much; and a separate effect on the yearly budget balance and the national debt. A speech or a personnel decision does not move the economy at all. When Checks and Balances is on and the cabinet only partly carries out a policy, its economic effect is reduced to match.

Some of a policy's effect on the economy lands immediately, and some continues for a time afterwards before fading away. The national debt also moves with the yearly budget balance, minus whatever active deployments and the draft are costing under War Room. The indicators drift a little on their own from month to month, and growth or inflation that runs unusually high tends to correct itself over time. Weekly Pacing does not change how much the economy moves over the course of a year, only how often it is checked.

Who reads it

With the switch on, the focus group and the officials who react to a policy are told the current state of the economy, so a voter reacting to a policy knows the unemployment rate as well as the policy itself. The Tweeter Feed and the events written under Dynamic Events read the same figures. The dashboard shows all five indicators with the month's movement, and each one can be opened to see its history. A response given during a campaign event is never judged against the economy, so a campaign answer cannot move the economic figures.

Access

The switch is free and always available, with no premium account needed. It also appears on the career builder, where it starts on. A governor's desk shows the state's own version of the same five figures, headed State Debt and State Budget, based on that state's own numbers for the year. Workshop packs can force the switch on or off, and can set their own starting figures for it.