Somewhat counterintuitively, raising the capital gains rate actually tends to decrease overall capital gains receipts. This is mostly due to the fact that capi

Somewhat counterintuitively, raising the capital gains rate actually tends to decrease overall capital gains receipts. This is mostly due to the fact that capital gains realizations are some of the easiest to time, and if advantageous, defer. This is a natural consequence of a convoluted system with complicated rules that encourage schemes. Another sad consequence of this system is that, as with our managed health care system, it creates a massive amount of regulatory and managerial overhead. The engineer in me would love to see a flat tax, and the resultant elimination of layers of bureaucracy, like the chopping out of so many lines of unnecessary code. Dare to dream...