By Liam Cosgrove | Mises Wire | September 11, 2021
Our healthcare system is broken, a fact nobody would have disputed in precovid days. Regulatory capture is a reality, and the pharmaceutical industry is fraught with examples. Yet we trusted private-public partnerships to find an optimal solution to a global pandemic, assuming a crisis would bring out the best in historically corrupt institutions.
A Legacy of Corruption in the FDA and Big Pharma
Trust the $cience! 🙄
Is China Transforming the World?
From speeches by president Xi Jinping, including the one he gave at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2017, journalists only wanted to retain his support of globalization—that is, his praise of free trade without obstacles—and a denunciation of protectionism. It is clear that the Chinese president was saying that “economic globalization has provided a powerful driving force for world growth, by facilitating the movement of capital and goods, the advancement of science, technology and human civilization, as well as exchanges between peoples.”1. What a sweet song in the ears of the neoliberals! Nevertheless, we should not hide the setbacks and problems, also underlined in this same speech: “Globalization is a double-edged sword.… The contradiction between capital and labor is accentuated.… The gaps between the rich and the poor, between the North and the South, are constantly widening.… The richest [elements] represent 1 percent of the world’s population, but have more wealth than the remaining 99 percent.”2
Related:
In a new policy study from R Street Trade Policy Counsel Clark Packard and Associate Fellow Bill Watson, the authors discuss how at a time when policymakers in both parties are looking to lower drug costs, reshoring the supply chain would be extremely costly for consumers, and would dampen innovation and hurt competitiveness for a global industry.
They find that data is imperfect, but we are not overly reliant on China for finished pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Protectionism Won’t Protect American Access to Pharmaceuticals
Delhi deals? Despite years of high-level negotiations, India and the United States did not announce a trade deal—even a so-called mini-deal—despite Trump’s hints during the visit that an “incredible” agreement was in the works. Both sides are holding out for better terms on items such as agricultural products, medical devices, and motorbikes—but it’s difficult to imagine momentum in an election year in the United States and with the impetus of a state visit already squandered.
Some smaller deals were announced, however. India agreed to purchase military equipment, including attack helicopters, worth $3 billion. And the two sides agreed to increase cooperation in fighting terrorism and in securing 5G networks.
— Read on web.archive.org/web/20200225220736/https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/25/trump-trade-strategy-india-visit-modi-delhi-violence-protests/
Therefore, when US President Donald Trump recently said that China “is dying to make a deal” and that its supply chains are breaking and its economy on the verge of a collapse, he certainly didn’t realise how his protectionism was costing the US way more than it was costing China.
— Read on journal-neo.org/2019/11/27/how-exactly-did-the-us-lose-the-trade-war-with-china/
The Brink, a documentary about the former Trump adviser, delivers an interesting insight.
— Read on reason.com/2019/04/12/steve-bannons-economic-nationalism-is-th/
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 