Dr. Laffer at Belmont

This week was a big week for me and lectures at Belmont. I had the honor of seeing Dr. Arthur Laffer, and I think it is safe to say that the crowd received him very well. I was incredibly impressed. Dr. Laffer is known to some as the "Father of Supply-Side Economics," as he was Reagan's primary economic advisor and the brain-child of "Reaganomics," an economic theory that has been in place in our country for the last quarter century and that is (many say) responsible for our economic prosperity since that time. Among his mile long resume is also the creation of the Laffer Curve, known to any first year economic student, which led to the many well known tax revolts in the 90's. Needless to say, this was going to be a pretty big lecture.

And he delivered. He spent the first part of his speech chronicling British and American history, dividing people into two groups. The first group, the "redistributionists," believe that money should be taken from the wealthy and given to the poor. Nice warm fuzzy feelings, but it doesn't actually work and encourages unproductivity. The second group of people are the "growthists," or people who believe that all people of a society benefit from a healthy economy and that the best welfare program is a sustainable job. So that's a little simplification of what he said, but you get the point. He did a wonderful job of separating specific political parties from the label of either groups, giving examples of how both parties have been both "growthists" and "redistributionalists" at some point.

Dr. Laffer was an extremely funny person, but that actually spilled over into his outlook on our country currently, which is surprisingly optimistic. Not too many people today have such a good view of America. In the second part of his talk, he said some interesting things on some hot issues, which really made me think:

-The trade deficit is not a trade deficit. It's a capital surplus. Without American dollars leaving our country buying other goods, our products can't sell globally.

-If immigration were cracked down on, legal or illegal, our economy would collapse. They provide cheap and quality labor.

-The democrats have been pretty much handed a golden platter for this election. Nevertheless, they won't stop the tax cuts. There may be talks of it, but it won't happen because there is too much at stake. If they do, the economy will take a serious downturn and a republican will be in office again in four years.

-Foreign companies on our soil being profitable aren't a bad thing. Would we rather have our companies on foreign soil being subject to foreign laws or foreign companies on our soil being subject to our laws?

-China isn't the devil. Our economy wouldn't last without China.

-Our country has a ridiculous employment rate. Ridiculously high. 94% is incredible. Compare that with other countries, throughout history and even today and you will be surprised.

So all in all, a good lecture. He's local in Nashville now, so I hope to hear from more of him sometime in the near future...