Arthur B. Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an institutional economic research and consulting firm, as well as Laffer Investments, an institutional investment management firm utilizing diverse investment strategies. Laffer Associates' research focuses on the interconnecting macroeconomic, political and demographic changes affecting global financial markets. Laffer Investments' investment management strategies utilize some of the economic principles and models pioneered by Dr. Laffer as well as other unique offerings managed by the firm's portfolio management group. The firms provide research and investment management services to a diverse group of clients, which includes institutions, pension funds, corporations, endowments, foundations, individuals and others.

Dr. Laffer was a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his two terms (1981-1989). He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Reagan/Bush Finance Committee in 1984 and was a founding member of the Reagan Executive Advisory Committee for the presidential race of 1980. He also advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on fiscal policy in the UK during the 1980s.

He was formerly the Distinguished University Professor at Pepperdine University and a member of the Pepperdine Board of Directors. He also held the status as the Charles B. Thornton Professor of Business Economics at the University of Southern California from 1976 to 1984. He was an Associate Professor of Business Economics at the University of Chicago from 1970 to 1976 and a member of the Chicago faculty from 1967 through 1976.

During the years 1972 to 1977, Dr. Laffer was a consultant to Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld, and Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz. He was the first to hold the title of Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Mr. Shultz from October 1970 to July 1972.

Dr. Laffer has been widely acknowledged for his economic achievements. Recently he was noted in Time Magazine's March 29, 1999, cover story "The Century's Greatest Minds" for inventing the Laffer Curve, which it deemed one of "a few of the advances that powered this extraordinary century". He was listed in "A Dozen Who Shaped the 80s," in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 1, 1990, and in "A Gallery of the Greatest People Who Influenced Our Daily Business," in the Wall Street Journal on June 23, 1989. His creation of the Laffer Curve was deemed a "memorable event" in financial history by the Institutional Investor in its July 1992 Silver Anniversary issue, "The Heroes, Villains, Triumphs, Failures and Other Memorable Events." Dr. Laffer is the author of a number of books, including "The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy-If We Let it Happen", which was a nominee for the F.A. Hayek book award in 2009, and "Return to Prosperity".

The Economic Outlook Art Laffer looks at the current economic environment and offers thoughts on where it's headed - short term, long term, domestically and globally - with prospects for investments, interest rates and business growth.