inheritance tax

[Brad DeLong]

>Not be be a nit, but there is no inheritance tax.  It's an
>estate tax.  Important difference.
>
>Latest and greatest, albeit technical, is "Does Atlas Shrug?
>The Economic Consequences of Taxing the Rich" edited by Joel
>Slemrod -- a collection of papers, and "Rethinking Estate and
>Gift Taxation", by Slemrod and William Gale (Brookings Institution
>Press, 2001).  Slemrod's shop is www.otpr.org  He received the
>"Ig Noble Prize" for his paper showing that people's date of
>death was influenced by taxes.

Doesn't that paper predict some absolutely ferocious effects just 
before the current-law reintroduction of the estate tax in... is it 
2010?

"Ooops. It's December 31. I'm sorry, Fred, but we can't afford to let 
Grandma survive until midnight..."

Brad DeLong