I had previously avoided researching governments because I wanted total control. I will try that.

How reliable is trade? If an AI decides to declare war, then my economy could be significantly damaged. Likewise if I decide to declare war. I have typically concentrated on trade only with ethically-aligned races. Mostly, I like to be evil...

I dissagree with 1 basic farm per planet, the only exception is 20+ planets, i had a population of 29,000 and was making 500+ bc per turn on that planet alone with tax rate near 40%

I use to not focus a lot on trade. That was before 1.1 Now it bridges the gaps to get my production capacity back to 100% while my tax base is growing. Adding econ starbases along trade routes to get more cash. Mining the crap out of resources both morale and econ to boost the cash flow.

Getting the bonus to pop growth is a good pick now, haven't tested it much but cutting out the time (or reducing it ) to get planet's max pop is beneficial.

I would say make your civ econ bonus heavy with some morale bonus. That will give you more money to stay in the game while you figure out what you need to change. Most of my games now I just don't know what to do with money there is too much of it!

I begin to go for Sensors techs, and build one or two anomalies-graber (cargo-hull, survey pod, two engines and a lot of range thing). anomalie-bonus aid well.

After that, i try to have a maximum of improvement techs (factory, research, morale and economy first. Farms after).

I try to have a little fleet. Not big because i use all my hammers for colony and constructor ship (Morale ressources are the better, but i grab all i can find).

I have four strategies : planets -11, planets 12-15, planets 16-20, planets 20+

On planets -11, it's one farm, one factory, perhaps one morale building, and research. No fancy (starport, defenses...).

On planets 12-15, two factories, two farms, two or three morale, one culture, research. Defense (soldiers) if front line, starport maybe, a bank.

On planets 16-20, three factories, farms et morale, two culture (three in front line), research, starport, maybe defense, starport, two or three banks.

On planets 20+ : Specialized planets : Lot of factories+starport+hyperion thing, lot of bank/research/culture and a capital, etc.

I never defend with fleets (bad implementation, or create new improvement for enhance defense fleet) : Better 3 fleets with 3 ship each and good engines than one ship on nine planets...

Trade is always good. Make friends and a lot of bc.

Military and economic bases near 20+ planets and clusters. It's really good and worth the price.

I never pay if an AI bark after me. I build ships. I'm the "touch me one time, die one time" type.

I don't go for weapons before the first AI bark : With enhanced improvements, i can search first weapons in one or two week, and AI never attack immediately.

Sorry, this is totally wrong! Diminishing returns, yes, but not "bad". Morale is not hard to keep up because the negative modifier due to population is capped at -80% which occurs at about 24-25 billion - every population increase after that point is just extra tax payers / troops / influence with no morale implications. So I have many planets in my current game with maxed out populations, and only 2-3 VR Centres on each - the rest of the tiles going to Stock Markets gives me a surplus income per turn of a little over 100,000bc (fairly advanced game, into the sixth year, 49% tax, 100% approval across the board). For optimum economic performance, I think building a one to one ratio of farms to stock markets is best, but I really don't need the extra cash that gives.

I did say that it was bad only in an economic standpoint... so why is that wrong? I'm not sure how else to clarify that, but if you still don't believe me, make a save game. Then go to that planet write down the income amount and then buy-upgrade all those farms and VR centers into stock exchanges (since you have the extra cash) so that you only have 1 farm left and 2 VR centers. Then crank up your tax to 69%, and hit the turn button. Check the planet's income now that it has the correct amount of people.

Seriously, it's just a matter of basic math. One farm and an initial colony gives you 13B, add another max farm only gets you to 21B, but requires 2 more morale buildings. The population raised about 60%, assuming that it is a linear growth, (which it isn't, in fact 13B - 21B gives you about 20% more), with that 3 slot, you could have raised your economic production by 90% with 3 stock exchanges. Even worse, by going the over 25B method, you almost can never go to 69% tax, unless you use a 6-7 VR center setup, so you end up using a much lesser tax rate. You do realize that the difference between 69% versus 49% is another 40+% on top of that right?

As for the troops argument, I'll say it again, you can fill transports and sit them in space when your planets nears full. I never ever have to worry about losing tax payers when I invade people, ever. To me, invading planets is like another good 13B tax payers per planet, because I've had way too many sitting in space doing nothing. Even the tiny class 3 planets, I could buy a farm and 2 VR centers, and shove 13B people on to them. They don't grow, and don't build anything, but they sure like giving me free cash.

The only thing that you lose with this strategy is the influence bonus from massive population, and yes, if you want to go for influence victory go right ahead for your 25B+ worlds. But as I said, from an economic standpoint, anything more than 1 farm is a bad deal. Besides, conquering by influence has lost all its charm past the 3rd game. If you thought it was easy before, now it is a cakewalk.

I tend to devote two or three high-class worlds (my capital being one because it naturally has a pop-cap of 10) towards being money planets. I tend to get Xeno Farming and nothing better than that, and I build 2 Xeno Farms on these worlds. After that, it's just about building entertainment and money buildings. I tend to max-out the econ building tech tree modestly early (possibly after the chest-thumping phase where I yoke my tech advantage and murder someone's foolish troops handily), so it's pretty reasonable to do that.

In long games, I find that worlds that I considered unreasonable as econ planets become more reasonable. Not just because I'm neutral and therefore get all Terraform techs (effectively), but also because it's easier to maintain morale on a world in the mid-to-late game than the early game. Stock Markets give a small morale bonus, and your higher-end morale buildings give an even bigger moral bonus. If you've got loads of money already, you can convert a world quickly (to the extent that the population can grow) into a money planet.

And once you have money, you don't need anything else. Manufacturing can be purchased, as can upgrades. I might try a game where it's just about maxing out money (and tech), and using that to purchase production directly. It may cost more, but it happens faster, thus allowing me to react much more rapidly.

Oh, one more thing. Production/research can be aided by starbases: economy (except through trade, but I consider that a waste of time for the most part) can't. So devoting huge numbers of tiles to factories has its disadvantages, compared to putting a +50% production starbase nearby. You still have to pay for the extra production, but you're in the money, so to speak.

One note on leaving a tile open on a planet for putting a project down later..
It does not cost anything to delete a tile improvement.
So instead of leaving an empty spot, use up all your improvements and delete them to put others as the game progress or just upgrade.
No need to have an empty tile at all

You do realize that the difference between 69% versus 49% is another 40+% on top of that right?

Sure do - but if my setup is making me over 100,000bcs a turn anyway, why would I want to? That weekly return proves that using extensive farms is a viable economic strategy, in just the same way that using extensive stock markets is.

You'll notice I agreed that more stock markets will give a higher economic return - so I am not disputing the math, I just disagreed with the statement that said more farms was bad in terms of economic ability, when it clearly is not - it's just a different strategy that can be used very effectively to build a monster economy, and if you do find yourself on the wrong end of a planetary invasion.... I know which population figure I'd prefer to have

I used to have the same problem. What i did was cut down on factories and labs(usually this) and use the freed up tiles to build markets(I have same amount of markets and factories on the big worlds). If you lack the econ techs you can always trade for them(I usually do this instead of reseraching the advanced market/stockmarket techs). I don't think you should rely on trade too much. It kills your econ if you go to war often. Econ race and party bonuses also help.

the one thing to watch out for with tech trading...don't trade away your diplomatic techs! You want to keep the advantage. Also, I try not to trade in research techs, so that I can wind up being king of the hill for both research and diplomacy. If you're going for a peaceful victory, try to get economic and research treaties from every race (do this early, before they start making treaties with each other).

With regards to economic star bases, they will help your economy if you've got a few trade routes and you upgrade them to give you a bonus from trade -the production bonuses will cause you to pay more for your increased production, so you should consider your economy before doing that. You can get it to the point where you lower taxes to 0, and still be making a decent amount of money from trade. If you do eliminate taxes, I think econ buildings become useless...so that frees up space for other buildings.

I trade as much as I can.

My worlds usually have only one or two economic boosting ressources.

I also make sure all my star bases have the trade modules.

To maintain a good trade, you just need to find a good aliance partner and that gallactic privateer.