Big Pharma’s Sinking Business Model
May 11, 2012
Much has been written about the travails of the pharmaceutical industry. Generic competition is reducing profitability as leading blockbuster drugs like Pfizer’s Lipitor lose patent protection. Biotech generic competition is on the horizon.
The industry’s sleazier marketing techniques are in decline. Physicians are turning their backs on fancy dinners and sham consulting contracts, and not just because the companies were forced to fork over billions of dollars to settle government anti-kickback suits. Starting in 2013, patients of every physician who takes money…
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Nobel Economists Push for Inflation
May 01, 2012
The number of Nobel Prize-winning economists calling for higher inflation targets at the Federal Reserve is growing. Robert Engle, a New York University economics professor who won the profession’s top prize in 2003, spoke earlier today at a Bloomberg summit in Washington.
“A little bit of inflation would do a whole lot of good for the U.S. economy, would certainly do a lot of good for the housing market,” he said. “If we had just a little bit of inflation and house prices went up, all the sudden they’d be above the mortgages.”
In last Sunday’s New York Times…
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Dying to Work: On the Job Fatalities are Rising
April 30, 2012
Every day, 130 million Americans report for work. Every day, on average, 12 do not return home because they were killed on the job.
Saturday was Workers Memorial Day and federal officials in charge of the agencies responsible for workplace safety solemnly noted the continuing toll on U.S. workers, 4,690 of whom died from on-the-job injuries in 2010, three percent more than the year before. “This is intolerable,” said David Michaels, administrator of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “Making a living shouldn’t include dying.”
“These…
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What to Call Ryan's Private Medicare Plan
April 27, 2012
What’s in a name? Everything, it would appear, when it comes to describing Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to include a private insurance option for Medicare, which the Republican-controlled House of Representatives backed in its budget resolution late last month. The plan offers future seniors the option of buying private insurance in lieu of traditional government-financed Medicare. The government would finance a portion of the purchase.
Architects of the plan call it “premium support.” Opponents call it a voucher, which they say will over time lag behind medical inflation…
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Obama, Ahead in Polls, Could Be Thrown a Curve
April 20, 2012
Almost daily, Americans are bombarded with polls suggesting major dissatisfaction with the direction of the economy. Yet the presidential futures markets and the most recent polls continue to signal the president has a significant lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
This morning, Intrade, which bills itself as the world’s leading prediction market, shows Obama with a 60 percent probability of winning the race, up from 46 percent last October. The University of Iowa’s presidential election market shows a similar 60-40 spread for Obama on…
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Time to End the War between the States
April 13, 2012
State and local budgets have been devastated by the Great Recession. Hundreds of thousands of teachers, police and firefighters have lost their jobs.
Yet states continue to dole out billions of dollars annually in subsidies to attract businesses, often in largely meaningless competitions with neighboring states. Last year, for instance, Kansas convinced AMC Entertainment, the national movie theater chain, to move its headquarters from downtown Kansas City, Missouri to the suburbs on the other side of the state line. The state gave AMC $47 million to aid the…
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