Street Rat Crazy Saloon

Friday, May 14, 2010

This is why they call it the dismal science

... Another piece for the "not quite sure where to file this" file.

People have too much time on their hands (and I read too much)

Interesting Automatic Earth Post Today

In case you are interested

Have a great weekend

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Try practicing a little perspectives flipping. ;-)

When we don't coopeate...

This is what happens.

As a 4th generation Californian, I'm simply astonished.

My heart goes out to everyone, including The Governator

This is really sad

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Now let me add up front that I certainly do not think of myself as a spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical industry- not that my self image is worth anything. Further, in the interest of complete financial disclosure, my 401k has a total stock market index fund so I guess you could say I have pharmaceutical investments. Again, I have never thought of my index funds in this manner, but this conflict of interest should be highlighted up front.

That embarrassment off my chest, I want to comment on this rather tiring attack on one of the more ugly of the uglies in our world today. We all know them: Big pharm.

They are bad.

Let me further get out of the way that I'll answer "yes" to any and all questions you may have regarding their sleazy sales practices. As I think on this, the makers of Invanz brought the entire emergency department sandwiches from Panera Bread the other day and handed many of us all their plastic logo pens (I think I still have one in a bag somewhere). I ate my entire sandwich.

My bad

That embarrassment off my chest, I want to address a common wisdom known as "do not use an expensive drug when a cheaper alternative is available".

For just like in the last post, where I said: "the sum of the parts equals the whole, yet when you only look at a single part you can easily miss the whole", do any of you see the problem this kind of logic misses?

... I'll admit, it is subtle and easily overlooked. That said, it is not insignificant either.

Hint:

1. Life is lived forwards but understood backwards
2. Price is not the same as cost of production

Paul Says "No"

Krugman has an interesting piece on Greece. Long story short, he thinks the parallels are over blown.

It looks like the health bubble has a few years left.

Be careful what you wish for...

Being a hospital based specialist, I'm always interested in stories like this. And for the record, I really don't have a problem with this kind of approach. But in the classic spirit of "the sum of the parts equals the whole, yet when you only look at a single part you can also easily miss the whole", do any of you see the obvious problem with this bill?

And while I wouldn't really have any issues if such a proposal came from a Republican- there would be a certain consistency to the proposal- it is interesting such a bill comes from a Democrat. I suspect he does not understand health care very well though I freely admit I could be wrong.

Hint: we live in a non-linear world

PS- John, don't spill the beans too soon ;-)