Economy might have been a bad choice of words.. It's not about picking weeds or getting gold.. It's about creating a rationale for playing the game aside from simply random firefights, no matter how large.. In other MMOs the "economy" in whatever form is the motivator for a lot of what players do. In EVE it's also a convenient tool, indirectly, for going to war.
Like DviddLeff suggested, the devs could design interesting ways to get people fighting, but the more your game mechanics put it in the hands of the players, the more you can focus on other aspects of the game.
So, economy isn't the best term for it, but the thought behind this thread was ideas (if SOE is watching) for in game triggers to fight.
Mechanics they can develop into the game to incentivize campaigns and big battles.