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Photos:

https://alchetron.com/Arthur-Laffer-698822-W

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1439217

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/michel-kellygagnon/laffer-curve_b_5639285.html

Content:

http://www.laffercenter.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Laffer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve

https://www.amazon.com/End-Prosperity-Higher-Economy-If-Happen/dp/1416592393

https://www.amazon.com/Return-Prosperity-America-Economic-Superpower/dp/1439160279/ref=pd_sim_14_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1439160279&pd_rd_r=F5NX2C52W74DCK8CNJE2&pd_rd_w=JRoW0&pd_rd_wg=hAfdF&psc=1&refRID=F5NX2C52W74DCK8CNJE2

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/15/kansas-trump-style-tax-cuts-economic-disaster

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/us/politics/white-house-economic-policy-arthur-laffer.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-B-Laffer

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My ideas on tax cuts are what I am known for. These ideas made people really recognize the relationship between tax rates and tax revenue.

One of my earliest successes was my involvement in Proposition 13, the California initiative that drastically cut property taxes in the state in 1978. This property-tax-cap initiative also managed to cause a nation-wide revolt on tax.

But it was during the 1980s my ideas had the biggest impact on US public economic policies. President Reagan based his 1981 economic plans on the idea that tax cuts would increase tax revenues. Although the tax cut didn't work out quite the way we would have expected, the revenue loss was less than we had projected, as the tax cuts gave the people more incentive to earn more income. We went from a government tax revenue of $517 billion in 1980 to $909 billion in 1988.

Today, my theories on tax cuts are yet again seen in the political world with President Trump's proposal on making drastic changes to the tax system and slashing taxes for everyone.

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PUBLICATIONS
My most famous books are...

The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy - If We Let it Happen (2009)

I co-wrote this book with Stephen Moore and Stephen Tanous. In this book, we talk about the dangers of anti-growth policies of Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. During the 1980s, the United States has been in an age of prosperity - wealth creation, new jobs and improved living standards. However, with the ideas of the Democrats listed above, America is putting its prosperity at risk.

Return to Prosperity: How American Can Regain Its Economic Status (2010)

I collaborated with Stephen Moore again and wrote the sequel to The End of Prosperity. In this second book, we talk about how to regain American's once-prosperous economic status. We illustrate how flat-rate taxes,  government spending, sound and stable money, free trade and minimal regulation can help turn the economy around and fix our financial problems.

Some of my other publications and works are...

The Bitter Fruits of Devaluation (1974)

The Impact of a Tax Cut (1978)

A Return to Convertibility: Making the Dollar As Good As Gold (1979)

Protectionism is Bad for Everybody (1980)

Reaganomics: Tax Cuts Are Not Enough (1985)

Creating Wealth, Not Just Savings (1996)

The (Tax) War Between the States (2007)

The Private Equity Edge: How Private Equity Players and the World's Top Companies Build Value and Wealth (2008)

An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States: How Taxes, Energy, and Worker Freedom Change Everything (2014)

MAJOR IDEAS
I am a supply-side economist. That means I mostly deal with tax and fiscal policies that help economic growth by creating incentives for producers to keep producing.

My most famous economic concept would be the Laffer Curve. Although it is most associated with me, I did not come up with this theory (despite what certain sources say). I simply drew the illustration to match the theory.

I had come up with this theory at a 1974 dinner with Jude Wanniski, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. We were talking about then-president Gerald Ford's "WIN" (Whip Inflation Now) proposal for tax increases, so I went and grabbed a napkin to sketch the curve and explain my position on tax increases.

The actual name of the curve came in 1978 when Jude was writing an article for The Public Interest, titled "Taxes, Revenues, and the 'Laffer Curve'". He had dubbed it "Laffer Curve" and it stuck ever since.

The actual graph shows the tradeoff between tax rates and the total tax revenues actually collected by the government. The basic idea is that no tax revenue will be collected at the extreme rates of 0% and 100%, therefore, there must be a point between those rates that would maximize tax revenue. That's why the curve is represented as a graph that starts at 0% tax rate and 0 revenue and ends at 100% tax rate and 0 revenue with a maximum revenue in the middle. Anything before the maximum revenue point is considered the "normal range" and anything after that point is considered a "prohibitive range". This is because increasing tax rates beyond a certain point is counter-productive for gaining more tax revenue. Higher tax rates become disincentives for people to earn more income. A cut in the tax rate would then be more beneficial to increasing tax revenues. But of course, the idea is not that all tax cuts will pay for themselves, it's that tax rate cuts will lead to more employment, personal income and growth, which are, ultimately, goals for any economy.

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PERSONAL LIFE
Hi, I'm Arthur Betz Laffer. You may know me as "the father of supply-side economics". And yes, I'm an American political economist that follows the school of supply-side economics.

I was born on August 14, 1940, in Youngstown, Ohio. I am the son of a politician and a businessman. I studied economics at Yale University and received my B.A there in 1963. I then studied international economics at Stanford University and received my M.B.A in 1965 and my Ph.D in 1972.

After receiving my doctorate, I went on to teach at University of Chicago (1974-1976), then at University of Southern California (1976-1984), then finally at Pepperdine University (1984-1987). While I was teaching, I also worked as a political consultant. I served as a consultant to the U.S. Treasury and Defense departments (1972-1977) and then as a member of the economic policy advisory board for President Reagan during both terms of his presidency (1981-1989). In 1986, I also ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate, but unfortunately, I did not get the position.

Today, I live in Nashville, Tennessee where I am the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates (an economics consulting firm) and Laffer Investments (an investment management firm).

INFLUENCES
My career in economics would not be the same had it not been for John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, Ibn Khaldun and Robert Mundell. These four, particularly Keynes and Khaldun, shaped my views on supply-side policies today.

Keynes and Khaldun were particularly strong influences because they were the ones that first spoke of the idea of the Laffer Curve. I had based my illustration off of their ideas.