...Iceland's 300,000 citizens became some of the world's wealthiest people...after it opened up the economy, privatized state companies and slashed marginal taxes...

Happily, the government can't seem to get enough of a good thing. It convened a special task force in 2005 to look into ways of transforming Iceland into a financial hub. Headed by Sigurdur Einarsson, chairman of Kaupthing, the country's biggest bank, the committee recommended in November that the corporate-tax rate be reduced to 10% from the current 18%. That's below the 12.5% in that other European economic powerhouse surrounded by water -- Ireland.

The benefits of low taxes are on full display in Iceland, which provides an almost perfect demonstration of the Laffer Curve. From 1991 to 2001, as the corporate-tax rate fell gradually to 18% from 45%, tax revenues tripled to 9.1 billion kronas ($134 million in today's exchange rate) from just above 3 billion kronas. Since 2001, revenues more than tripled again to an estimated 33 billion kronas last year. Personal income-tax rates were cut gradually as well, to a flat rate of 22.75% this year from 33% in 1995. Meanwhile, the economy averaged annual growth rates of about 4% over the past decade.