Is this a great world or what? - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Q: I was going to ask you whether the public and its leaders were getting smarter in economics. I guess you answered it.

Laffer: They've been great. Look at what's happening. Since that '79 interview we had, OK, let's take a look at what happened to marginal tax rates. The highest rate has gone from what -- 70 percent -- down to what, 35 percent? What's happened to inflation? What's happened to regulation restrictions? What's happened to America and the world? What's happened to the stock market? What's happened to everything you and I believe in? Do you remember what unemployment rates looked like back in 1979? Do you remember what the prime was when Ronald Reagan came into office on Jan. 20, 1981? It was 21 percent.

Q: This is a happy economist. It's not dismal at all, is it?

(Via Newmark's Door.) On the state of economic literacy and economic policy, I'm not as pollyanna as Laffer, but I do think we're moving in the right direction.