This is What’s Cannibalizing the US Economy

[Banjo]

In the sluggish US economy, the goods-producing sector has been in decline since late 2014, but sales in its biggest sub-sector are booming: medicines.

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/15/big-pharma-sales-boom-on-drug-price-increases/

 

[vanzandt]

Another sign of the times.

 

[vanzandt]

These companies sure do spend a pile on TV advertising. You can't get through a show without seeing several 60 second or more annoying drug commercials. And whoever writes and produces these things... why are they so infatuated with stupid cartoonish themes? (Maybe that tells us something too about the mindset of the general populace).

It wasn't too long ago that pharma couldn't run ads on TV.... The next Administration is going to go after healthcare costs... if they clamp down on television advertising, big media is gonna be a nice little "reactionary" short play. Comcast, CBS and News-Corp would take big revenue hits.

 

[Handle123]

It been much longer than 2014, when old man Sam Walton died, Walmart went a different direction as the kids took over of the company. It started 1992 when he died.

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/brief-history-of-walmart/

This is truly when America changed and went from producing our own products and keep American dollar within our borders to China now holds so much of our debt and our jobs of production.

I been checking out equipment for restaurants last few months and unbelievable prices of China and USA can't compete cause we have tariffs that give away America, hope Trump makes it more fair.

And this has always worked well when having a business.

http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/history/10-rules-for-building-a-business

 

[eurusdzn]

Surprising it took so long for this to happen.
The richest generation, the wealth effect recipients, the government subsidized ederly, the boomers etc..... These are the major consumers of prescription drugs and overall demand remains at these high price levels.
Somehow though, lets try to pin it in the millenials.

 

[Cswim63]

There's just got to be a huge placebo effect to most of this stuff.

 

[piezoe]

Somehow though, lets try to pin it in the millenials.

In the absence of competition, ruled out by regulatory capture and exigency, the price of medical care is not very elastic.

In the U.S. one pays both medicare and private insurance premiums their entire adult lives -- assuming they purchase medicare supplementary insurance after age 65. In the U.S., medical care for the young and healthy is largely left up to the insurance companies, and medical care for the old is largely left to the government.

Is it any wonder that the results from the U.S. way of doing things is as they are -- substandard results at a cost ~100% higher than in any other industrialized nation?

Insanity is to keep doing the same thing expecting different results -- A. Einstein