This story is so easy that comedians just might pass on it because there isn't enough challenge.
Pfizer Inc. says it will provide 70 of its most widely prescribed prescription drugs — including Lipitor and Viagra — for free to people who have lost their jobs and health insurance.
The world's biggest drugmaker said Thursday it will give away the medicines for up to a year to Americans who lost jobs since Jan. 1 and have been on the Pfizer drug for three months or more.
The announcement comes amid massive job losses caused by the recession and a campaign in Washington to rein in health care costs and extend coverage. The move could earn Pfizer some goodwill in that debate after long being a target of critics of drug industry prices and sales practices.
The program also likely will help keep those patients loyal to Pfizer brands.
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Standard & Poor's (S&P), the credit rating agency that played a big negative role in this crisis, released a report yesterday that concluded that the U.S. banking crisis may last until 2013. Only time will tell if they are right - who knows if they are trying to make up for the mistakes they made with mortgage crisis. If they are right it maybe more evidence that the financial conglomerates may be a drag on our economy. It is well past time to break-up the "too big to fail" conglomerates.
The less than glowing report by S&P is like cold water in the face and a deep contrast to the euphoria after the release of the not too stressful 'stress tests'.
Initial jobless claims rose 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 637,000 in the week ended May 9, the Labor Department reported. ....
[A]nalysts have focused on the recent downward trend in claims. Claims hit a peak of 674,000 in late March.
Economists had expected claims to move higher this week. Roughly 27,000 hourly employees of Chrysler were laid off in the wake of the company's bankruptcy filing. There were also layoffs at parts suppliers.
A spokesman for the Labor Department said the government could not quantify the exact number of layoffs stemmed from Chrysler. But the increase in claims did come from the automotive sector.
In other words, take out Chrysler, and we would've been under 600,000. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but a move in the right direction.
Today, ... the Obama Administration proposes a comprehensive regulatory framework for all Over-The-Counter derivatives.
Moving forward, the Administration will work with Congress to implement this framework and bring greater transparency and needed regulation to these markets. The Administration will also continue working with foreign authorities to promote the implementation of similar measures around the world to ensure our objectives are not undermined by weaker standards abroad.
Unregulated, un-reported, and un-collateralized derivates are a huge part of the reason behind the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression in which we find ourselves.
I have been very critical of President Obama and Secretary Geithner previously for their kowtowing to banksters, but the framework unveiled this afternoon is Big News, and it is (yes, truly) Good News. The text of the announcement and some instant analysis below.
No good news, No happy days are here again, No bottom in the housing market.
Leg Two Down
After that little head fake of an uptick in sales for March the RE market is resuming its downward trend. Those that still listen to the screaming heads of CNBC and FAUX news bought into this garbage journalism and unfortunately are going to pay dearly.
The housing crash that began with the subprime collapse in the summer of 2007 is set to resume this summer ... only this time .... higher up the food chain.
Even while the media was touting a bottom in housing as evidence by the uptick in sales, foreclosures were setting new records in March and April.
April was the second straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing, as the number of borrowers with mortgage troubles failed to abate.
Geithner urges electronic trading of OTC derivatives. This includes CDSes or credit default swaps.
The U.S. Treasury will tell banks to increase transparency in the over-the-counter derivatives market by making prices available on centralized computer platforms, according to people familiar with the plan.
Today will be an easy one because I didn't do an awful lot of research on these two plans. You rarely hear people talk about these plans, so I didn't spend much time on them.
The private sector is the predominant provider of health care in Brazil, particularly for inpatient services, and financing is a mix of public (through a prospective reimbursement system) and private. Roughly a quarter of the population has private insurance coverage, reflecting rapid growth in the past decade fuelled by the crisis in the public reimbursement system and the perceived deterioration of publicly provided care.
Retail trade sales were down 0.4 percent (±0.7%)* from March 2009 and 11.4 percent (±0.7%) below last year. Gasoline stations sales were down 36.4 percent (±1.5%) from April 2008 and motor vehicle and parts dealers sales were down 20.7 percent (±2.3%) from last year.
This drop was not anticipated by most observers.
As with March, it appears that almost all of the decline in consumer sales vs. a year ago is cars and gas. (Update: Ex-gas and cars, YoY retail sales are flat to -0.1%).
Last month's decline failed to take into account the early Easter from last year vs. this year. Thus we should probably average the two months' data, for a decline of -.9% YoY.
John Taylor, former undersecretary of the Treasury under Bush, gave a speech which said the Fed must raise rates and reduce the money supply to avoid inflation.
What is most amusing if it was not so serious is Taylor turned our favorite phrase systemic risk onto the Federal Reserve's actions.
Indeed, a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, again lays blame at the Federal Reserve (let's not name names but it begins with a Green and ends with Span).
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