Taxing Growth

Summary

Gerald: 0:00 Hello and welcome to Equitile Conversations. I'm Gerald Ashley, and as usual, I'm joined by my good friend and colleague, George Cooper. And today in this episode, we're really pleased to welcome along Doug McWilliams, who's really one of the big names in macroeconomics and forecasting. I would hesitate to say it, but not just economics, because I think it ties into the politic the politics of things as well. So, Doug, welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much for inviting me. The show notes will sh sort of show your full background and everything, and people can take a look at that. But um maybe a good opening point is that you've recently been a co-author of a new book out called Prosperity Through Growth, which is lovely timing because it does seem a good time to be talking about growth uh not just for us on this podcast, but uh really for uh anybody interested in the UK and wet Western uh economies. Um George, I know you've already sort of gone into this book and it's Prosperity Through Growth. Any initial thoughts or comments? George: 1:14 Yes, I'm I'm about halfway through the book, and I had the the great pleasure of seeing um of seeing Doug and uh Arthur Laffer, who's the other co-author of the of the book, uh, give a talk at the London School of Economics. It was it was really quite impressive. I think uh I think everybody would agree it was quite amazing uh the the energy that Arthur Laffer had. And I've I've never really been a flat tax person up to this point, but I have to say the first few chapters of the book are s um starting to convert me quite powerfully. Uh Doug, what do you want to weigh in on that side of the book? Doug: 1:57 Yeah, surely. Shall I just say a little bit about the book and then come in and uh answer your question directly? Um the book's Prosperity Through Growth. Um, as you point out, the most famous of the co-authors is uh Arthur Laffer, the Laffer of the Laffer Curve. But it's also uh uh Michael Hintsey, who's the Pope'...