If you don’t care about economics, the game will pretty much run your star nation’s domestic production, taxes and interstellar trade for you, with only occasional input from you and your advisors. On the other hand, if you are so inclined, or if you are related to Alan Greenspan, you can set monetary policy, interstellar trade policy, tariffs, government spending priorities, social policy, tax policy, and education policy. If you do want to meddle, there will be slightly larger risk of economic catastrophe, but an even greater chance of great wealth.