Word: laffer
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...rhetoric on taxes and even informed conservative opinion is maddening to those of wonkish bent. Pointing it out has become an opinion-column staple. But none of these screeds seem to have altered the political debate. So rather than write yet another, I decided to find out what Arthur Laffer thought...
...Laffer is a bona fide economist with a doctorate from Stanford. He's also largely responsible for the Republican belief that tax cuts pay for themselves. Now 67, Laffer runs economic-consulting and money-management firms in Nashville. About the best I could get out of him on the question of whether the Bush tax cuts have paid for themselves was "I don't know." But that's only part of the story...
...saga that began in a bar near the White House on a December afternoon in 1974. Huddled at a meeting arranged by Wall Street Journal editorial writer Jude Wanniski were Cheney, then the deputy chief of staff to Republican President Gerald Ford, and Laffer, who was teaching at the University of Chicago's business school after a stint in the Nixon White House. In trying to explain to Cheney why a tax hike mooted by the President might not be such a great idea, Laffer drew a chart on a napkin that showed government revenues increasing as the tax rate...
...logical that economics and government, disciplines that study money and power, are by far the most popular disciplines at Harvard. But be sure to go beyond appearances: open the Courses of Instruction in an obscure area, and make sure you graduate knowing the meaning of hassium, kleos, and the Laffer curve...
...would allow him to increase the payout on winning tickets and lure back punters who are patronizing illegal offtrack shops. As proof, Wong points to the United Kingdom, which made a similar change three years ago and saw annual betting income surge 82%. Indeed, there are echoes of the Laffer curve in Wong's proposal: allowing individuals to keep more of their winnings may actually maximize overall revenues. "I'll bet more if there's more money to win," says Lam Siu-kit, a 54-year-old security guard who goes to the track every week...