Dr Art Laffer, Charting America’s Economic Destiny in the Age of Trump

Dr. Arthur Laffer explores the nuts and bolts of Trumponomics and what it means for the future.

Recorded at Patrick Henry College on Tuesday, October 9, 2018.

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I wrote down some key arguments Dr. Laffer stated in his seminar. Hope this helps anyone who needs it!

• Both the country and states can’t tax themselves into prosperity.
• Trade debt and national debt cannot be compared.
• Government’s involvement should be in national debt, not trade debt.
• The Chinese trade surplus has been very positive for the United States.
• A trade deficit for the United States is good for the country, but a trade surplus is not.
• The effect of debt is not about the amount of debt, but about the spread of it.
• The short-term interest rates on our debt to the Chinese has been zero.
• Because of the debt, the United States has enormous leverage over China.
• The wealth of the United States has Siuonly been increasing.
• America was built on foreign capital by running trade deficits.
• Trump’s predecessors, two of the worst presidents economically, greatly benefited him.
• Trump, as a president, has had the best economic effect in the first term in recent history.
• The state and local tax deductions have been eliminated, which is a good thing.
• A practice has been to make interest rates zero, but this greatly reduced lending.
• Interest rates must be at the point where demand equals supply.
• Low rate broad base flat tax, deregulation, monetary policy, and trade have improved.
• The future of the country appears to be prosperous.
• Tariffs hurt both the country they’re imposed on and the country imposing them.
• Tax reductions seem to increase economic growth.
• There is no way to solve the debt problem without economic growth.
• The government should collect revenues from the least bad revenues.
• Government spending is too large and is spent on too many frivolous things.
• State and local governments are potentially corrupt because of their control of the money.
• It’s very difficult to politically organize programs to decrease spending.
• Entitlement programs that are too large create poverty.
• Entitlement programs need to be edited and regulated to ensure fairness.
• Sin taxes are mainly created to promote certain behaviors, not to generate revenue.