The End of Prosperity
Book

The End of Prosperity

How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy – if We Let It Happen

Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore and Peter Tanous
Threshold Editions, 2008
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Recommendation

Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore and Peter J. Tanous give Ronald Reagan full credit for laying the foundation for decades of U.S. prosperity. They see today’s government programs as a return to the worst of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. The authors find it strange that the U.S. is adopting a more European model just as many European countries are moving more toward Reaganomics. They suggest a different path to good fortune: Get government out of the way of individual, entrepreneurial opportunity. If this reasoning persuades you, pay particular attention to their chapter describing how California, once the most prosperous U.S. state, became an economic basket case – a decline that the authors blame on the expansion of government spending, regulations and taxes. Laffer’s advocates, including those who also favor a flat tax, see this book as an instant classic; his opponents have already dismissed it. getAbstract suggests it to those seeking a conservative take on current economic policy.

Summary

Darkening Clouds Descend on the U.S. Economy

Those who predicted a U.S. economic collapse in the past were wrong. Americans are incomparably richer than they were a century ago. If owning microwaves, color TVs, air conditioners and the like indicates material well-being, they have made substantial gains since 1970. The current generation doesn’t remember the Great Depression, the deprivations of World War II or even the 1970s stagflation. They’ve forgotten President Ronald Reagan’s economic transformation. Now, leaders who learned all the wrong lessons from history are advocating policies that will undercut the U.S. economy. Since they don’t understand prosperity, they will kill it with mistaken “trade protectionism,” “tax increases,” “profligate government spending,” “new regulations,” increased “government intervention in the economy” and bad “monetary policy.”

What the “Laffer Curve” Really Says

Dr. Arthur Laffer famously drew the Laffer Curve on a paper napkin at the Hotel Washington in December 1974 as he explained it to Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Jude Wanniski, then of The Wall Street Journal. These men, later prominent thought leaders ...

About the Authors

Arthur B. Laffer, Ph.D., “father” of the tax-cut movement, chairs Laffer Associates. Stephen Moore covers economics for The Wall Street Journal and contributes to CNBC. Peter J. Tanous, author of Investment Gurus, writes finance books and is CEO of an investment firm.

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