Dr Art Laffer is in Australia this week. I enjoyed listening to him deliver a speech to IPA members and guests in Melbourne on Wednesday. When I say ‘deliver a speech’ I mean entertain a large group of people with wit, humour, optimism and humility in a lively discussion full of historical significance and anecdote. He explained his a priori theories and backed them up with evidence. For those of you who have enjoyed the short film of Art having a commemorative lunch with Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, he is just as engaging with an audience of strangers as he is when lunching with his friends of 40 years or more.

Dr Laffer is undoubtedly one of the most influential people of the last 40 years.