A modest correction

In this post about prospects for estate tax reform I speculated that the estate tax may have killed a family-owned newspaper in Seattle. That was wrong. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has gone to an online-only format. The Seattle Times, owned by the Blethen family, is doing okay, and may do even better now that it is the only paper in town. Frank Blethen was the guy who testified before Congress about how the estate tax cripples family-owned enterprises. He continues to be an advocate for estate tax repeal.

Here's a video of Blethen discussing how the Seattle Times will weather the current financial storm.

Here's background from five years ago on how the Blethen family is trying to bring the next generation into active participation at the newspaper, to keep it in the family.

Here's an implicit call by Democrats to use the estate tax as a means to divest the family of its ownership of the newspaper. They obviously resent multi-generational participation in successful businesses. Blethen's a Democrat, but not lefty enough, apparently.

Here's part of the explanation for Democratic support of the Senate move to increase the exemption to $5 million and decrease the rate to 35%.