Arthur Laffer is a rare economist. He has lived to see his theories enacted as policy at the highest level over many years, and those theories have been shown, everywhere they've been tried, to be false. Here he is debating Peter Schiff two years ago. 

Listen to what both men are saying, and ask yourself, with the benefit of your hindsight, who was right: Schiff or Laffer. Schiff should go on the programme again, and this time, his interviewers won't be so smug.

Though all the talk is about the US economy, their analysis holds pretty well for Ireland.