Laffer on Mundell

[Max Sawicky]

I was consorting w/some big shots this week, including a few
Extremely Conservative economists to whom Laffer is a figure
of fun, particularly for his self-promoting ways and delusions
of grandeur.

Among the cat hissing re: Mundell was the observation
that apparently Mundell's work implies that a common
currency would not work for the EU.  This is totally unfamiliar
territory for me, but evidently Laffer in the passage below
is not quite attuned to this point, if it is indeed true.  If it is
it would be grist for some amusing commentary on
this year's Nobel award.

mbs


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(DH:)
[From the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which, as Michael 
Thomas says, they run in lieu of comics. Laffer, besides writing this 
masterpiece, was the author of Jerry Brown's 1992 tax plan.]

Wall Street Journal - October 15, 1999

ECONOMIST OF THE CENTURY
By Arthur B. Laffer, chairman of Laffer Associates, financial 
consultants in San Diego. . . .

His 1973 article "Uncommon Arguments for Common Currencies," along 
with his keen sense of cultural diversity and politics, formed the 
basis of what now is known as the euro. Bob took the academic 
community head-on both by showing the fatal flaws in the logic of 
floating exchange rates and by elucidating the impeccable logic of 
the gains from trading money across national boundaries. . . .