Posts Tagged ‘Free Market’

Ryan Index: Federal Flood Insurance in the Free Market

September 5, 2017

I love Texas. A “can do” attitude. Nothing too big to take on as an engineering challenge. The East Coast of Texas is an economic machine that helps drive the USA economy. But every so often humility in the face of unknowns would allow “outsider” voices to be heard and it may help.

December 7, 2016 In a stunning and ultimately foretelling narrative of the August 2017 Harvey Hurricane flooding, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune researched the science and the statements of public officials covering repeated devastating floods to strike the city of Houston … spanning over 100 years! With an attitude that we’ll keep rebuilding it as long as you (Federal Government) will pay for it an every increasing number of developments are being built in flood prone areas.

Texas is a state that prides itself of letting free market forces work … but apparently there are exceptions if you can get the Federal Taxpayer to pay for mismanagement. A complete lack of zoning laws and outdated flood management practices in Harris County Texas along citizens and leaders that apparently do not recognize science are among a few of the observations made by scientists and flood management practitioners from around the country. No outside observers interviewed in the above referenced ProPublica article agreed (actually they were stunned) with comments and actions taken by Harris County public officials.

September 4, 2017 Bloomberg Businessweek: Harris County and Houston is situated on a swamp. There will always be water problems and being sited next to the Gulf of Mexico with increasing water temperatures portending ever greater water events calls for a change in the way development is managed. Otherwise … development will continue unabated … water events will create more misery and the USA Federal Government and it’s taxpayers will be picking up ever greater bills to rebuild developments that never should have been built.

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Ryan Index: So This is The Free Market!

September 13, 2009

Did you ever come across news that just makes you cringe in disgust? Not “fake” news or information someone is spewing to throw someone off or on to a trail that does not reflect reality … but a realistic assessment of events or policies that just are not by any means balanced or fair. It seems there at a never ending series of these types of situations here in Arizona, the USA and around the world. I thought I would write them down as I see them.

Pharmaceutical Charges:
Bloomberg Businessweek (August 28, 2017 issue) reported that Roche Holding AG, the large pharmaceutical company, through their biotech affiliate Genentech reformulated a successful cancer drug called “Rituxan” that was also used off label (not FDA approved) very successfully to treat Multiple Sclerosis. The new drug is called “Ocrevus” and is now just approved by the US FDA.

“How these medications work is exactly the same” according to Annette Langer-Gould a former assistant medical director at Genentech.

Roche could not arbitrarily raise the price of the cancer drug Rituxan … so they created a development plan including FDA approval that would bring Ocrevus to market.

Annual Cost of Rituxan in the US: $8-$10K
Annual Cost of Ocrevus in the US: $65K

In this case “Free Market” means taking advantage of patent protections and the unilateral pricing power afforded by the FDA imprimatur. “Free Market” in this case also means that US Tax payers and Insurance premiums are jacked by 8X over another effective treatment.

Repeat and Rinse 100s of times across our pharmaceutical industry and no wonder we pay 50% more than the next major industrialized country for healthcare.

 

“Legal” Tax Avoidance by the owners of Chanel and the U.K. government

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-10/chanel-owners-get-5-billion-in-dividends-as-sales-of-luxury-goods-boom

In 2022, amid severe budget shortfalls and workers seeking raises after two+ years of austerity due to COVID lockdowns, we learned about the owners of Chanel, Gerard and Alain Wertheimer, giving themselves a 5 Billion dollar dividend sent to their Family Office, Mousse Partners in the Cayman Islands. It turns out that apparently, no one knew that the British do not tax dividends sent to offshore owners, and no one knew that the Cayman Islands do not tax dividends. It seems like a match made in heaven to get large sums of money from the UK without paying taxes on the profits. Since the Cayman Islands is a British territory, it seems odd that policymakers would have set up this mechanism to benefit their richest citizens. I’m being sarcastic; it is not odd; it is hypocrisy of the highest degree, and if it were not “legal,” it would be criminal.

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