Posts by Katharine Moody
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I was a bit more optimistic about his discussion/reporting of his meeting with big pharma - e.g.,
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/31/trump-tells-drugmakers-he-wants-them-to-manufacture-in-the-us.html
He's right that the American public health system (government) pays more for American manufactured drugs than many foreign governments - NZ being a prime example (and if his advisors are worth anything, they explained to him the Pharmac model which they would be wise to adopt).
This statistic regarding just how bad it is over there surprised even me: as a percentage of GDP, public health expenditure in NZ is 9.7%, whereas in the US it is 17.1%;
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr_2015_statistical_annex.pdf
Table 9 - Health outcomes, final column.
I saw the Medicare rip off by big pharma first hand over there when my mother was in her end-of-life phase. Trump is spot on when he states this:
Trump also decried what he said was the situation where "I go to a drug store to buy aspirin [and] the aspirin costs me less than what the United States pays for aspirin."
The president was referring to regulations that Medicare, the federally run health coverage program for primarily the elderly, is barred by law from negotiating drug prices.
It's a ridiculous situation - all I could think of was how much more of their local population could be covered by socialised medicine if someone would just bring their own manufacturers to heal.
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to mark taslov,
he could have done him and our neighbours a solid and offered to take those 1250 refugees off their hands
Exactly.
The UNHCR’s most recent refugee report is a must read. Of those refugees resettled in 2015:
Of the resettlement countries that received refugees
during 2015, the United States of America admitted
60 per cent (66,500). Other countries that admitted
large numbers of refugees under their resettlement
programmes during 2015 included Canada (20,000),
Australia (9,400), and Norway (2,400).http://www.unhcr.org/statistics/unhcrstats/576408cd7/unhcr-global-trends-2015.html
And in terms of non-refugee inward migration, the US has 46 million migrants (40% of all migrants the world over);
Migration to North America
The United States continues to be the main country of destination for migrants in the world. The number of African immigrants in the United States has more than doubled during the last 10 years, reaching about 2 million. Meanwhile, migration flows from developing Asian countries to the United States and Canada continue to increase steadily.
Similarly, migration flows from most Central American and from many Caribbean countries to the United States have continued to rise steadily since 2011. A good portion of these flows are irregular. In fact, around 40 per cent of all irregular migrants in the United States, or an estimated 6 million, were born in either Central America or the Caribbean.
A particularly alarming irregular migration trend, which has grown recently in the United States, is made up of immigrant children, especially unaccompanied, originating principally from Mesoamerica.
On the other hand, the growth rate of migratory flows originating from Mexico to the United States has steadily decreased in comparison to the previous decade. Still, Mexico continues to be the principal country of origin for immigrants entering the United States and the principal migrant country of origin in the world.
The United States is also the main destination country worldwide for immigrants originating from developed countries (North-North migration). In fact, the United States is part of the first, third, fourth and fifth most important North-North migration corridors in the world. In decreasing order, Germany, Canada, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom, are the principal migrant countries of origin that make up these corridors.
http://www.iom.int/world-migration
If Americans need time to get their domestic shit together (and from what my relatives there tell me rising domestic crime/violence and widening inequality is a real problem) – I’m hopeful they will – and am happy for them to look inwards for a while.
The rest of the world where there are fewer domestic crises need to step up.
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
What's so totally weird is that by the time the stay gets heard by the Supreme Court - the temporary ban would likely have ended. I wonder whether it's more about a struggle between a market globalist worldview - given the evidence of direct business harm as presented to the Judge by Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks seems to have been the basis of his decision to determine the order brought harm to the states) vs the imperialist globalist Trump administration's worldview;
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to Stephen R,
As I understand it - Dodd-Franks was a ruse in respect of addressing the Wall Street TBTF coup - and has had unintended consequences elsewhere in the economy - and having had no impact whatsoever on the root of the Wall Street coup - which according to many has to do with the repeal of Glass-Steagall, as Glass-Steagall prevented the merging of commercial and investment banks. Hence why Americans bailed out the bad bets of the investment side of those various commercial and investment banking entities.
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to BenWilson,
I reckon the coup already took place - it was a Wall Street coup. And what Trump's administration does about that will be the test of sincerity in terms of his campaign platform and the reason he won the critical swing states in the electoral college. So I'm watching what the progress is in terms of bringing back Glass-Steagall, and/or amending Dodd-Franks. And the force in favour of retaining the Clinton administration's repeal of Glass-Steagall is strong. Oddly enough, if he really does want to break the back of the Wall Street coup, then Elizabeth Warren is his best friend. Trump during the campaign was in favour of bringing Glass-Steagall back - Mike Pence was not - and hence one of the reasons why the GOP elite got more comfortable with their own candidate once he picked Pence as a running mate.
So far, Wall Street is undisturbed and romping home in the interim;
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-04/wall-street-vs-main-street-trumplandia -
Hard News: The next four years, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Interesting link, thanks. This quote in particular:
While others saw the world rebounding from the financial crisis of 2008, Bannon just saw it becoming more divided by class.
The elites that had caused the crisis - or, at least, failed to stop it - were now rising higher. Everyone else was being left behind.
"The middle class, the working men and women in the world... are just tired of being dictated to by what we call the party of Davos," Bannon said in a 2014 speech to a conference at the Vatican in a recording obtained by BuzzFeed.
The party of Davos :-) - he's not far wrong on that one.
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Hard News: Taking the stage in Mount Albert, in reply to linger,
voting for the least worst
I fear that might have had a place in getting Trump elected. Given neither he nor his family had served in government before, I think some Americans fed up with the corruption of government/governance, lobbying and lobbyists and Wall Street in general in America, voted for him as that "least worst".
As one of my relations said, it was exactly that kind of choice - they ticked a box - a choice they were not proud of, but nonetheless they ticked out of a sense of duty. I suspect that was a duty to breakdown the establishment. As another relative said to me - "the Republicans hate him; the press hate him; and George Soros hates him... had he been anyone else he'd have been the candidate of my dreams".
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to David Hood,
Indeed - no one could say he's not true to form (I thought it a joke when they announced the inaugural dance would be to "My Way") - and so far he's "on message" i.e., fully predictable in accordance with his campaign bluster.
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to nzlemming,
It's another of those time honoured traditions of incoming presidents. Obama proclaimed his inauguration day as National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation and GW proclaimed his as National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving;
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Ironic isn't it - Donald Trump saves us from the ultimate in American hegemony.