Four Weird Things You Don't Need to Know About the 'Fiscal Cliff'

The "fiscal cliff" is many things, and a few of them are things you might not expect. Here are four maybe-true, mostly interesting sideshows to the "fiscal cliff" circus.

It could kill people. John Carney of CNBC writes that there is evidence supporting the notion that more millionaires might die before the country goes off the fiscal cliff.

"Although we cannot rule out the possibility that our results are driven by misreporting, our results imply that over the very short run, the death rate may be highly elastic with respect to the inheritance tax rate," Gans and Leigh write.

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It ruined Christmas. Jordan Weissmann wrote that the fiscal cliff—with an assist from nasty weather—depressed holiday spending. Which explains why I didn't get you the iPad you wanted.

Coffee could solve it. But probably not. Starbucks employees in Washington have been instructed to write "come together" on customers' cups.

In some countries, they're calling it the "fiscal abyss." So says Heidi Moore. Check out her post on how people are translating our mess. Winner? "Belastingkloof."

Photo via Flickr (cc) user jdhancock.