Thursday 31 August 2017

Half Million Dollar Drug - Spiral of Greed?

One has to wonder who checks the costing that Novartis uses to justify the price of its Kymriah Cancer Drug. What would Robert Koch, Louis Pasteur or Alexander Fleming make of this behaviour?

https://www.bloomberg.com//news/articles/2017-08-30/cancer-breakthrough-heralds-new-era-of-cures-costs-and-choices

Thursday 24 August 2017

Insane Economics? Nomen est Omen?

Fullest employment potential reached with more immigration? How does that work Mr. Insana? So by inviting millions you boost 'growth', but per capital income is what counts!
Ron Insana: Tax reform is a great idea, but tax cuts just might be a waste of money

Friday 18 August 2017

Gary Cohn's teacher once told his parents he'd be lucky to be a truck driver

So money piled up is the main measure of the man? Maybe a truck driver does work that is more valuable? The world could well get on without the Gary Cohn's of the world, but without truck drivers, hospital nurses, street cleaners it would be a bad place.
Time to review the system that distributes rewards in the Economy.
Gary Cohn's teacher once told his parents he'd be lucky to be a truck driver — and now the Trump adviser and Goldman boss is worth $266 million

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Google is paying Apple to remain on the iPhone

And the regulators and anti-trust people are asleep on the watch. When do payments become a bribe?
Google is paying Apple billions per year to remain on the iPhone, Bernstein says

Thursday 10 August 2017

Nobody cares if Bill Gates gets richer because of tax cuts?

Forbes is a card-carrying member of the 1%. His arguments are ludicrous. Of course, Joe Six pack does not care, because he does not know or better - the numbers involved are so absurd and beyond the comprehension of the average citizens that he CANNOT care! But the Billionaires' wealth is not 'created', it is redistributed, like the wealth of feudal lords was not 'created', they took their lands and the majority had to put up with it. In those days it was just brute force, now it is ideology supported by media that is basically controlled by the 1% (remember: free speech means that 200 rich people are allowed to say what they want you to hear, think Murdoch, Barclay Brothers etc).
This ideology perpetuates the 'trickle down' effect, so if Louis XIV builds his Versailles the workers benefit from the expenditure. Now of course the capitalist (better: free market) system needs free interplay to generate a growing and productive economy. But with the wrong signals and rules of the game we get absurd results. People who make billions playing the markets, benefiting from market failure and rigged rules that preserve them (copyright, corporate law, tax subsidies for financial gambling casinos).
All these are the result of a lack of democratic control where the lobbies of the (Super)Rich control the state and prevent full and public discussion. Paying the multitudes off with 'Welfare' and driving them into ever-larger indebtedness (to the Haves, as every debt is the asset of someone else) has led us to the present situation where a public revolt is becoming increasingly likely. Populism will become more and more 'popular'.
Steve Forbes says nobody cares if Bill Gates gets richer because of tax cuts - MarketWatch

Sunday 6 August 2017

Pension fallacies (cont'd)

UK pension system is fatally flawed, subsidies go to the better off, administration is hugely expensive (all the intermediaries in the pension 'industry' take hefty cuts, up to 2 per cent PER ANNUM (!!). State pension for all, no admin, one computer, payment kicks in when pension age is reached, total estimated cost 0.01 per cent! No surprise that providers do not want to hear this! But they still would have their place, people could and will save on their own to provide a better retirement - if they wish to do so.
http://www.cityam.com/269694/robbing-grandson-peter-pay-grandpa-pauls-pension-unfair