> Friedman as far as I understand economics represents an outlier in the free market US school of economics Not really, in the general case, but definitely no

> Friedman as far as I understand economics represents an outlier in the free market US school of economics Not really, in the general case, but definitely not on the topic of the estate tax. It's actually quite hard to find rigorous economic analysis and research that defends the estate tax. > I thought [the free market US school of economics] was on the retreat in recent years? That's definitely not true. The current political tide is towards taxation and regulation, but politics have very little to do with what economists agree on (much to their chagrin), and politics is highly cyclical. Also, I'm not sure why "US" is in there - it's not like free-market economics is advocated particularly strongly by US economics compared to their foreign counterparts. Again, politics and consensus among economists are not the same thing.