The “Laffer Curve” was not terribly rigorous. Its origins in a restaurant rather than a classroom are evident from the napkin itself, which is now in the possession of the National Museum of American History. It shows the independent variable—the tax rate—on the y, not the x, axis, as would be normal in academic economics. But if it was even remotely plausible that tax cuts might unleash enough economic activity to “pay for themselves,” then Laffer had discovered the political equivalent of a magic lamp.
