Page 43 - Issue 62

Ramadan Vol.1 Issue 62 December 2023 ELITE

Kareem

The Economics Smackdown: Round 2

Menna-t-Allah Hossam Enan - Level 4 - Economics
menatallah.annan2020@feps.edu.eg
Hello and welcome to a new round of the They could also target achieving social

Economics Smackdown!! objectives, such as reducing poverty,
The Economics Smackdown is a fun little promoting income and gender equality via a
game that aims to introduce FEPSians to variety of measures, such as welfare
some of the most hotly debated economic programs, progressive taxation, or women
questions and expose them to the different empowerment programs.
answers that various economic schools have Different schools of thought see government

managed to come up with throughout the intervention from widely different
years. perspectives and today, with the help of
This way you (i.e., FEPSians) can get to Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini, we offer
think about the different perspectives from insights from 4 major economic schools:
which an economic problem may be tackled, Early Islamic Economic Thought, Classical
choose the economic school you agree with Economics, Marxism, Keynesian Economics.
and maybe come up with your own However, before diving in, it is important to

answers!!! note that the perspectives we provide are
This month’s highly debated economic topic simplified summaries of what these schools
is government intervention in the economy. postulate and that there can be many
If we were to define government intervention variations existing within the same school.
in the economy as <the actions taken by a Additionally, many modern economists draw
government to influence the market and inspiration from various schools of thought

economic activity=, we would find that these to form their own perspectives, advocating
actions can take a variety of forms and can for pragmatic approaches that address
be made to achieve various economic or specific economic challenges.
social objectives. Moreover, it is important to highlight that
Government interventions could aim to sometimes schools don’t necessarily offer a
correct market failures by providing public singular perspective on the issues covered, but
goods and services, regulating monopolies they might connect it to other issues deemed

and addressing externalities such as important to the school itself.
43 pollution. They could also include promoting Thus, it is essential that we keep in mind that

economic growth by manipulating the fiscal not everything is black and white and that
and monetary policy. there is always room for debate.
Now that that is out of the way...