Tag Archives: economics

European Union Sanctions on Russia

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Another round is in the offing, possibly this week or next. And there’s this hopeful claim of the EU:

EU officials say privately and publicly that the sanctions are inflicting serious damage on Russia’s economy and military….

No doubt sanctions are an important part of a necessary “all of the above” suite of moves to support Ukraine in its defense against the barbarian. But are they strong enough themselves? Will the new round be materially stronger?

After all: how many battalions have the sanctions forced Putin to withdraw from Ukraine? How many battalions have the sanctions in concert with other moves forced the barbarian to withdraw?

Zero.

The pain inflicted on the barbarian isn’t enough. It needs to be orders of magnitude stronger. The sanctions have to be orders of magnitude stronger. The only places in the world with which the barbarian should be allowed to do business of any sort are withing Russia and with the PRC, northern Korea, and Iran. And those need to be tightened down, also.

Right Idea, but…

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…details in the implementation will matter, also. Competition always drives costs to a level approaching the cost of production, and that’s to the good, not only of consumers but for competitors and others looking to enter the market, as well.

However.

On Monday, [Congresswoman and MD Mariannette (R, IA)] Miller-Meeks along with three of her colleagues introduced a bill titled the “Biologics Competition Act,” which seeks “to evaluate the process by which interchangeable biological products are approved to be used in pharmaceuticals.”
“So in essence, what we’re trying to get is biosimilar drugs that are the same chemically—that they have an equivalency to let those be prescribed as generic drugs, which would bring down the cost of medication[.]”

There’s a reason generics, in general, are delayed in getting authorization to be marketed: to allow the drug’s initial developer(s) time to recoup the costs of development and to begin realizing profit, and thereby encourage further drug development.

Such permission delays would need to apply to the biosimilar drugs, too. With a fillip: defining how much change is necessary while remaining biosimilar without leaving the required change so trivial that the new drug is an outright plagiary with only a token item grafted on.

That may well be the eye of a needle—passable, but with difficulty, especially when trying to write down a specific law. Worth going for, though, absolutely.

Manchin’s Permit Reform Legislation

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It’s in serious jeopardy from House Progressive-Democratic Party members—70 of them—and Senator Joe Manchin (D, WV) hasn’t even released the language of his permit reform proposal (but West Virginia’s other Senator, Republican Senator Shelly Moore Capito, has released hers). Despite this, Manchin blames Republicans for the jeopardy.

On top of that, Manchin says he’ll release his proposal in the coming days.

This, of course, is nonsense. Manchin, responsible Senator that he is, has had his proposal written since early in the days when he was negotiating with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) the price for which Manchin would sell his vote on the Progressive-Democratic Party’s then-latest spendthrift bill.

Manchin has no reason at all for withholding his proposal from public scrutiny for so long, much less from the other party’s scrutiny before demanding their vote on it.

Backdoor Guaranteed Income

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The DC city council is getting ready to give holders of the city’s municipal bus and rail system fare cards a recurring $100 balance. Card holders will have that much fare money given to them, repetitively, by the taxpayers among the District’s residents (given to themselves to the extent there’s overlap between the two groups).

A slice of guaranteed income for council-approved persons. If Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) government were serious about lowering city transportation costs for its residents, those personages could, instead, simply lower the fares, so that all the residents could share in the program.

But, no….

Inflation? What Inflation?

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President Joe Biden (D) and his White House spokesmen have been bragging about what a strong economy we have.

Even CNN waved the BS flag at that. Here’s how strong our economy really is.

The Labor Department on Tuesday reported its consumer-price index rose 8.3% in August from the same month a year ago [albeit down slightly from the prior two months’ year-on-year inflation]

And

[C]ore CPI, which excludes often volatile energy and food prices, increased 6.3% in August from a year earlier, up markedly from the 5.9% rate in both June and July

And

Food prices continued to climb sharply this past month, rising 0.8% in August from July, as did those for new vehicles leapt 0.8%. Prices also rose last month for medical care, education, electricity, and natural gas

Inflation in energy cost is especially troublesome. That’s the price of heating and cooling our homes, our places of business, our schools, how we power our industrial facilities. The impact on our health and finances from that exacerbates our demand for/need for medical care.

That inflation is made the worse by the growth in wages that’s been occurring since inflation took off with Biden’s ascension to office (if not since his election). Wage growth had been at half the rate of inflation, meaning us Americans’ income actually had been shrinking relative to the prices we face. But last month, despite that 8.3%/6.3% inflation, our wages grew…not at all.

Median household income was essentially unchanged last year on an inflation-adjusted basis….

Our wage dollar buys ever less in the Biden version of a strong economy.

Biden and his Progressive-Democratic Party are either wholly unaware of the real economy us average Americans face, or they’re blatantly lying about the situation.

Meanwhile, they partied on the White House lawn the day those numbers were released, celebrating this wonderful news.

Remember their obliviousness or their dishonesty this fall.