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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » The main loser from the MidTerms looks set to be “Big Pharma”
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » The main loser from the MidTerms looks set to be “Big Pharma”
One of the things we take for granted in the UK is the cost of our prescription medications. This is all part of the NHS and the majority of patients are too young/old or have chronic conditions which mean that they don’t pay.
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At which point he will accuse the Democrats of socialist interference in the free market. (Even though restrictions on purchasers combining to use their power to drive down prices is somewhat antithetical to the free market).
I think it's rather optimistic to conclude from that that something will actually happen. This is going to be a very confrontational period in US politics, with healthcare one of the battlegrounds, and there's also the obstacle of the Senate.
Prescription drugs account for somewhere around 10% of US healthcare spending. Assuming a hugely over-ambitious 50% cut, it would barely make a dent in healthcare costs (though clearly would make a big difference in individual cases).
Healthcare in the US is a mess, and addressing that systematically would deal with the drug pricing problem at the same time. Won't happen, of course, and pharmas are a relatively easy target.
The unintended consequence would quite likely be the acceleration of the current slow migration of drug development to Asia.
It's not entirely clear at all.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/07/trump-democrats-2018-elections-midterms-972254
Trump insisted that cooperation on policy cannot be done “simultaneously” with vigorous investigations. “Somebody says, ‘Oh, you can do ‘em both.’ No, you can’t,” he said. “Because if they’re doing that, we’re not doing the other, just so you understand. So we won’t be doing that.”
The message seemed to preview White House plans to use Democrats as a handy foil for Trump as he positions himself for his 2020 re-election campaign.
One former White House staffer laughed hysterically Wednesday morning when asked about Trump’s pro-Pelosi comment, suggesting his calls for bipartisanship are pretend.
“He’s totally trolling,” this person said, adding that Trump is “on war footing” now that election night has passed and he’s faced with the reality of a Democratic House majority “that was elected solely to pare down his presidency...
I have no doubt he plans to blame any failure to act on Democrat obstruction.
Might happen; might not.
Sad.
Just
https://twitter.com/natalie_bloomer/status/1060235031225008129
On that money, they can fly to San Francisco every weekend if they want.
It's easy to follow the market and leave Bellew (6.2) vs Usyk (1.2) well alone.
Usyk has of course has just come off his WBSS win (and he won it nicely) and he is unbeaten in any case. Bellew has never looked the image of an unbeatable boxer (he has lost twice), even with his Hollywood appearances.
But Bellew seems to have forgotten how to lose, he can bang, and he has more ringcraft than it seems he does, probably much more than Usyk is expecting.
Plus at 6.2 in a match, it's got to be worth 50p of anyone's money the win.
Are PBers FOR or AGAINST neoliberalism?
Memo
Neoliberalism or neo-liberalism is the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism.
Those ideas include economic liberalization policies such as privatization, austerity, deregulation, free trade and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society.
These market-based ideas and the policies they inspired constitute a paradigm shift away from the post-war Keynesian consensus which lasted from 1945 to 1980
Last month he took the unprecedented step of inviting members of the public to apply for posts online.
Candidates were told to attach a CV and provide evidence that they met the requirements.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46139475
Application #10014
Name - Dr Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Age - 47
Education - Bsc,Msc,PhD
Previous Experience - Extensive experience of leading several multi-national organizations, including successful rapid worldwide expansions.
However, the Arizona Republic estimates that almost 650,000 votes have yet to be counted statewide — including 80,000 to 100,000 in blue-leaning Pima County and 500,000 (!) in Maricopa County (the Phoenix area). Maricopa has some very blue corners and some very red corners, so without knowing where the outstanding ballots are coming from, this is a totally wide-open race. Reportedly, the state will issue updated vote totals at 5 p.m. local time every day starting on Thursday, Nov. 8.
So clock in at midnight our time tonight and you might get some more info!
"Trump’s policies flout the cardinal Keynesian rule - “the boom, not the slump is the right time for austerity” "
The money - both marketing and R&D - eventually goes where the demand is, which up until now has been the US. China is now a very big market, and getting bigger. And there is quite a lot of serious R&D being done in Asia now - and the money and appetite to increase that quickly.
The good news for pharmaceutical companies is that most drugs can be sold worldwide, so a bigger market means lower prices don't necessarily lead to lower profits.
https://twitter.com/JohnMannMP/status/1060458351014936576
In poor taste all things considered, but I guess they're making a point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_al-Baghdadi
How did a clown like this get to such a position in govt?
This is the party stuffed full of Tea Party types who hate debt and deficit and spending. Another large swathe of the party love markets and free trade.
Why they have signed up to this Trump-onomics crap is beyond me, but involves cowards.
Are they privileged? Yes of course they are, but they are so because the market in LV will pay stupid money for his skills. (The market in rural Arkansas can't, and such rural areas are suffering from lack of medical skills). My point is that in classic capitalist "rational actor" economics, why wouldn't they spend a few years in LV to make that money to pay off a chunk of their huge medical and psych school debts?
Another reason why they won't stay in LV for long is that they have a one-year-old and the public school system in LV is very bad with even the private schools being largely meh. Vegas isn't somewhere you'd want to bring up a family.
I don't oppose people arguing for the right to bear arms to see the consequences of that - what a gun does to a body. Except that is not what is ever shown on TV. Just the grief. And it feels to me distasteful to show grief in the way that we do. It rarely aids understanding and it makes me feel like a voyeur in a way that I don't like. Nor do I like my emotions manipulated by the way that some stories are presented.
But my real issue was the way that incidents in the US become big news stories here when really they are not relevant to the UK at all and there are stories that we are not being told about what happens in other European countries, let alone in Asia or Africa, which are or may be more relevant. Sometimes it seems to me we get news from the US because that's where the journalists are rather than because they are the most important stories.
I was at a presentation by a well known city fund manager earlier in the week. He gravely opined that May was doing her best, the Chequers deal was not perfect but would provide considerable comfort. The fact that Chequers is more dead than the fabled parrot seems to have completely passed him by.
A lot of people are in for a nasty shock in the next few weeks IMO.
https://twitter.com/mattsingh_/status/1060558413791444992?s=21
The thing these went Trump, but Bernie would have crushed Trump into those states. It was the fact he was up against Clinton.
Now's the time to buy domestically-focused UK stocks, IMO. In fact I've have just done exactly that - Lloyds Bank, housebuilders, funds like Marlborough UK Microcap Growth. Once we get a deal, which looks imminent, there's likely to be a quite large relief rally.
[This is not investment advice, etc etc!]
Ohio looks fairly safely Republican now.
So, yes, it does come down to PA, WI, and MI, unless either the Republicans or Democrats become very unpopular.
I believe we are likely to see movement next week to the deal with a take it or leave it option to the HOC
https://twitter.com/rbrharrison/status/1060527171867942913
That's an 'Against', btw.
I miss the days when papers and the BBC had proper correspondents in France and Italy and other European countries. David Willey in Italy used to write superb articles about Italy for instance. We've had endless stuff about the EU, most of it from a position of ignorance, and yet we are remarkably poorly informed about politics and life generally, including culture, in our near neighbours. Yet some appalling shooting in the middle of nowhere in US can be the lead story. It is appalling and horrible but its impact on us is, frankly, zero. If tragedy was the test we'd have Indian railway accidents as lead stories far more often than we do.
That could indeed be the reason
As for buying housebuilders right now - November 11th notwithstanding, that really is doing your duty.
Not that Labour is much better
My question is: is it entirely wise of the EU to take the attitude they are taking? I am not arguing for Britain to get everything it wants like some Brexiteers. I am simply saying that given Britain's position and its history and the history of Europe and the advantages of having a good relationship it may be wise to look to have a partnership which is something between a partnership of identical equals and one which says "we're bigger than you and we'll use that power", regardless of the consequences.
Failing to think of the long-term seems to me to be a failing which could come back and bite both us and the EU on the bum in what is an uncertain and unstable world.
In short, I think the EU does have a stake - or ought to, for its own sake - in minimising that contradiction to a much greater extent than it is seeking to do. Nothing is forever and nothing is inevitable. The march of history - which the EU seems to think will march in its direction for ever - has a nasty habit of taking some very unexpected turns.
But given the rancour between the sides from Day 1, the potential losses on both sides even in the event of a 'good' outcome and the inability to agree a solution on the Irish Border, or even accept how critical an issue it was until late in the day, hard to imagine how it could have been much better.
My guess is that if you played June 24th 2016 - now 100 or so times, most of the time you'd end up here. Probably a couple of times Brexit was stopped for various reasons, maybe a couple where we ended up with a rock hard border in NI and damn the consequences, probably a few where the UK negotiating position was more widely agreed across parties at an earlier stage. But they'd be the exceptions. Maybe the unpalatable truth is that this is exactly what Brexit is.
Of course if the deal isn't agreed or gets torpedoed by any unholy alliance of Umunna, Vince, Corbyn, Rees Mogg and Peter Bone, then the investment won't look so good (in the short term at least). But in that scenario the pound will crash and the foreign holdings will more than compensate.
Or, to put it another way: the pound is going to shift sharply either up or down, and UK-focused stocks are going either to soar or slump relative to international stocks (in sterling terms). You need to be positioned for either scenario.
[This is not investment advice etc etc!]
What does he think poppy money goes towards?
The original tweeter when not smashing up banks runs fake news site novara media.
It seems these days to be a somebody in the corbynista movement you have to have a criminal record, not be keen on Jews and be a total f##kin moron. Owen Jones is of course defending this guy.
The Old Dominions are rich stable countries. People want to read about sex, scandal, violence and celebrities. They don’t do brilliantly on that front.
There is plenty of housing going up atm. People are looking to permitted development and CLTs because no one can afford the flats going up round the corner.
That is why I wouldn't be buying even at these multiples right now.