Arthur Betz Laffer, Sr. (born August 14, 1940) is a supply side economist who became well known and influential during the Ronald Reagan administration when he was an iconoclastic member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board. He's best known for the eponymous Laffer curve, a notion that revolutionized economics and flouted the preexisting folderol in tax theory. After taking a hiatus from gormandizing at a restaurant in December 1974, Laffer sketched a curve on a napkin and indelibly altered the trajectory of human history.

He's the author and co-author of many books and newspaper editorials, including Supply Side Economics: Financial Decision-Making for the 80s. On January 3, 2005, Laffer showed that he is not a one-curve pony; he penned a ground-breaking editoral called "Destination U.S.A.", which may someday alter trade theory, for The Wall Street Journal.

Founder and CEO of Laffer Associates in San Diego, he received a BA in economics from Yale University in 1963. He also graduated from Stanford University with an MBA in 1965 and a PhD in economics in 1971.

He has six children. His acolytes include Lawrence Kudlow, the popular co-host of Kudlow & Cramer on CNBC.

External link

• Arthur Laffer Biography (http://www.barberusa.com/finance/laffer_arthur_bio.html)

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