Laffer Curve Napkin
Object Details
- date made
- 1974-09-14
- Description
- In 1974 economist Art Laffer sketched a new direction for the Republican Party on this napkin. Displeased with President Gerald Ford’s decision to raise taxes to control inflation, four men got together at a Washington, DC restaurant to think about alternatives. Laffer was joined by journalist Jude Wanniski and politicians Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. Laffer argued that lowering taxes would increase economic activity. Wanniski popularized the theory, and politicians Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney carried it out.
- The cloth napkin was taken as a souvenir by Jude Wanniski. The napkin reads “If you tax a product less results/If you subsidize a product more results./We've been taxing work, output and income and subsidizing non-work, leisure and un-/employment./The consequences are obvious!” with an image of the laffer curve in the middle. The bottom of the napkin reads To Don Rumsfeld/at our Two Continents/Rendezvous/ 9/13/74/Art B. Laffer"
- place made
- United States: District of Columbia, Washington
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Production and Manufacturing
- Industry & Manufacturing
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Related Publication
- Sewer, Andy; Allison, David; Liebhold, Peter; Davis, Nancy; Franz, Kathleen G.. American Enterprise: A History of Business in America
- Credit Line
- Gift of Patricia Koyce Wanniski
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- ID Number
- 2013.0041.01
- catalog number
- 2013.0041.01
- accession number
- 2013.0041
- Object Name
- napkin
- Physical Description
- white (overall color)
- Measurements
- overall: 15 in x 15 in x 1/8 in; 38.1 cm x 38.1 cm x .3175 cm
- Record ID
- nmah_1439217