tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925765946042638459.post254333739587510967..comments2024-03-18T02:22:56.392-04:00Comments on Disgusted Beyond Belief: Nothing like the WSJ to let you know what the wingnutty right is thinkingDBBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17805375811782552873noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925765946042638459.post-7383301847335896342008-01-30T10:40:00.000-05:002008-01-30T10:40:00.000-05:00Yeah, it is rather trivial and almost meaningless,...Yeah, it is rather trivial and almost meaningless, but the so-called 'Laffer curve' does exist at the extreme end of the taxation curve - where rates approach 100%. I wrote on this before in an older post. The problem is, there is no evidence that it exists anywhere outside of that extreme - and our tax system is nowhere near that high. So it is a huge load of bullshit that even Bush's own economic advisers don't claim - and yet we still see it spouted by people like Laffer. I think he must know it is bullshit and just says it to push the usual GOP agenda of cutting taxes on the rich - either that or he is batshit crazy.DBBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17805375811782552873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925765946042638459.post-64397976951210904592008-01-30T10:21:00.000-05:002008-01-30T10:21:00.000-05:00I think the guy who called it "voodoo economics wa...I think the guy who called it "voodoo economics was George H. W. Bush, and he was VP at the time.<BR/><BR/>But back then, the Laffer Curve actually made a certain degree of sense, although it probably didn't apply to the U.S. tax code. The theory was that there is an optimum tax rate at which revenue is maximized, that if the taxes are higher than that rate, a tax cut increases revenue. <BR/><BR/>If a country has a tax rate of 95% nobody has any money to start companies and stuff, so the economy suffers. There is also some nifty math at the extremes: cutting that rate to %90 doubles the amount of money you have to start companies and stuff, but only reduces revenue by 5.3%. So yeah, reducing that tax rate would probably increase revenues.<BR/><BR/>But the current idea, that tax cuts always increase revenues, is not so much voodoo (you'd have to sacrifice a chicken, and there would be some reason to hope it might work) as just plain goofy.Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16276626065227586643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925765946042638459.post-8183047142242991732008-01-27T23:47:00.000-05:002008-01-27T23:47:00.000-05:00There was a reason Laffer's ideas were called "voo...There was a reason Laffer's ideas were called "voodoo economics" at one time... I always thought of them as "Laffable economics."hederahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.com