The Angry Bear

Weekly Indicators for July 22 – 26 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. The high frequency data, like the personal income and spending report, continue to show a strong consumer. Some of the long term negatives have also gotten “less bad” as well. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual moment as to the data, and reward me a little bit for organizing it...

A follow-up to the much longer report on Insulin (test on this later) and how PBMs impact pricing on other drugs. “Insulin A Drug Pricing Analysis,” Angry Bear. “Drug manufacturers alone set and raise drug prices, and PBMs are holding drug companies accountable by negotiating the lowest possible cost for drugs, including insulins, on behalf of patients.“ According to 46brooklyn, this is an overly simplistic view on drug pricing. It should be...

Another add-on from yesterday as to why people should take precautionary actions when confronted with a pandemic such as Covid-19, the flu, or other contagions. There was much resistance to taking precautionary measures under the guise of a freedom to do what they wish to do mentality. Thousands of people paid with their lives after contracting Covid-19. Many of them decided they did not need to take any precautionary actions. Masks, social...

Ever since I graduated high school, I’ve been associated with one or another research university, either as a student, a postdoc or a faculty. And during nearly all of that time, I was engaged in some form of research.William Rouse wrote a book in 2016 entitled “Universities as Complex Enterprises: How Academia Works, Why it Works These Ways, and Where the University Enterprise is Headed.” He updated and summarized his research in a paper published...

The most economically consequential event of the past decade was the COVID pandemic. It saw countless heroic actions that will be forever unrecognized. Among those who were recognized were Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, who shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines. A more controversial figure during that period was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the NIH Institute of Allergy and...

Money from Sick People Part IV: Paying a Premium for Drug Pricing Irregularity — 46brooklyn Research Starting with the Q1 2023 Drug Pricing file (all of this information was knowable before the 2024 Medicare plan bid process was completed). Within the files are the five insulin products we identified as taking large price decreases. 46 Brooklyn identifies each of the specific drug products (i.e. dosage form and strength) at the NDC-level, the...

As taken from The Atlantic’s David Frum to which I subscribe. Bidens address explains why he was relinquishing power by marking himself as a modern Cincinnatus in actions . . . and his Republican rival as a new Catiline. Two political myths inspired the dreams and haunted the nightmares of the Founders of the American republic. Both these foundational myths were learned from the history and literature of the ancient Romans. The story?...

I copied the two paragraphs below (actually I took one and split it) from Matt Stoller’s Big News Letter. Matt is talking about the same issues I have been talking about for years. The Pharmaceutical Industry and their rip off pricing. It is a good read if you wonder over there. The YouTube is also from his site. I can not lay claim to posting such before. Doctor Glaucomflecken makes a valid point. United Healthcare Group is one of the top PBMs....

When you are in the land of Ohio and the OSC decides. About a year and a half ago, in a ruling striking down the Ohio state version of Chevron deference, the conservative majority on the state supreme court noted that “text should be given its contemporaneous and customary meaning.” Yesterday, in a 4-3 opinion, the conservative justices decided that “boneless wings” can have bones in them. Welcome to Buffalo Wildly Deadly Wings! Michael...

As America ages, dementia is becoming a bigger and bigger healthcare burden. Medicare won’t pay for long-term nursing home care. Dementia will be a growing drag on the US economy at least until the baby boomer die off.Shingles is caused by herpes virus, a neurotrophic virus. For many people who had chicken pox as a child, the virus hid out in their ganglia, emerging decades later as a painful rash. There’s a vaccine for shingles now that is protective...