Titillating curves

Today, esteemed friends and colleagues, presents us with the opportunity to revisit an old favorite. I am confident you are all familiar with the Laffer curve, which states that taxes can only be raised so high before the amount of money flowing in actually decreases. I mention this to ensure we are all on board when I say there is a problem with it. You see, its simplicity has caused many an economist – and many more wannabe economists – to employ it freely and with great alacrity. In fact, they use it so often the whole thing is starting to become a buzzword. The curve is recursive, referring to itself as much as anything else, and we are far beyond the point of diminishing returns; the Lafferlaffer curve strongly suggests we stop using this term, and come up with something different. Perhaps – and I know this is controversial – we ought to transition into something which has slightly more empirical backing – –

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