The term “trade-off” is employed in economics to refer to the fact that budgeting inevitably involves sacrificing some of X to get more of Y. With a fixed amount of savings, one can buy a car or take ...

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This article was originally published by the Council on Foreign Relations on Aug. 1, 2025. One of the hardest jobs of a policymaker is to weigh trade-offs. Few policies are clean, absolute, and ...