Trump awards kook for inventing fake curve
By Jonathan Chait
Last year, famed Republican economist Art Laffer co-authored a hagiographic tribute to President Trump and his agenda. Trump habitually bestows his most slavish supporters with pardons or in the event they have not been convicted of any federal crimes awards. Laffer accordingly will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom today.
But Laffers place of honor within his party was settled long ago. In 1974, he and Jude Wanniski, then a Wall Street Journal editorial writer, began proselytizing among Republicans for a new theory the two had worked out together. The breakthrough moment, at least according to legend, came when Laffer scrawled a curve on a cocktail napkin for Dick Cheney. The Laffer curve, as it came to be known, showed that the tax rate at the bottom, zero percent, and the top, 100 percent, both yielded identical revenue of zero. The curve connecting these numbers indicated that a lower tax rate could produce higher revenue.
Laffers more gentle critics, while noting that his curve fails to describe existing reality, have conceded that his curve is correct in the abstract. Theres no question theres a Laffer curve, says Republican economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Theres always a question as to where you are on it.
Even this limited defense of Laffer is provably untrue. Of course a zero percent tax rate yields zero revenue, but a 100 percent tax rate definitely does not yield zero revenue. Many governments have imposed 100 percent tax rates and have still managed to collect a great deal of revenue. (Ask yourself how the Soviet Union managed to control a vast empire for the better part of a century.) The conservative economist Casey Mulligan has found several examples of democratic states where some people, especially pensioners, faced marginal tax rates at or above 100 percent, and their labor did not disappear. I would personally prefer not to pay a 100 percent income tax, but under such circumstances, I would not cease working. Many other people would make the same choice ...
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/art-laffer-curve-trump-medal-freedom-tax-cuts.html
Vegas Roller
(704 posts)If someone had written a novel about Trump's rise, publishers would have turned it down as completely improbable.
appalachiablue
(40,994 posts)Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)During the medal ceremony, trump commented:
In 1999, TIME magazine named Dr. Laffer one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. Former Wall Street Journal reporter Jude Wanniski wrote, In studying public finance, there is nothing more important than an appreciation of the Laffer Curve. Ive heard and studied the Laffer Curve for many years in the Wharton School of Finance. Its a very important thing that youve done, Art. Very important.
There is, however, a problem:
1. Trump graduated from Wharton in 1968.
2. Laffer developed the theory in 1979.
Sounds like one of those pesky math classes that tRump didn't pass (or attend).
Moron.