Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
| Last | Change | Percent | |
| S&P Futures | 1402.7 | 2.7 | 0.19% |
| Eurostoxx Index | 2576.3 | -0.4 | -0.01% |
| Oil (WTI) | 106.45 | 0.4 | 0.36% |
| LIBOR | 0.4742 | 0.000 | 0.00% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 79.593 | 0.000 | 0.00% |
| 10 Year Govt Bond Yield | 2.34% | -0.02% |
World equity markets are higher this morning ahead of existing home sales data at 10:00am. Bonds are rallying as well, with the 10 year futures up 11 ticks, retracing some of the pounding it has taken over the last week.
Unsurprisingly, the Mortgage Bankers Association index of mortgage applications was down for the prior week, with refis down big. The average rate on a 30 year fixed rate loan was 4.19%.
The Federal Reserve released its financial statements for 2011 yesterday. Total assets were 2.92 trillion at the end of 2011, an increase of almost 500 billion. Total capital is 53.8B, and they distributed 77.4 billion to the US Treasury. They currently hold 895B worth of MBS, which is down 13% from last year. So it appears they are not fully re-investing P&I payments. Maiden Lane has been nearly cut in half and is down to 36B, when you include capitalized interest and all the other variable interest entities.
Speaking the the Fed, the WaPo has an article asking the question if Bernake is aggressive enough regarding unemployment. Naturally the inflation doves think he isn’t. Would QEIII lop a percentage point off of the unemployment rate? It is hard to make an argument that it would. A real market-clearing bottom in housing would do more to get the economy moving than more games from the Fed.
How would the major European banks have fared under the Fed’s stress-tests? They would have passed, according to analysts at Barclay’s. Surprising result, unless they explicitly did not model another sovereign default.
Filed under: Morning Report |
All Things in Moderation 
Interesting:
“Generic Drugs Proving Resistant to Damage Suits
By KATIE THOMAS
Published: March 20, 2012”
“Debbie Schork, a deli worker at a supermarket in Indiana, had to have her hand amputated after an emergency room nurse injected her with an anti-nausea drug, causing gangrene. She sued the manufacturer named in the hospital’s records for failing to warn about the risks of injecting it. Her case was quietly thrown out of court last fall.
That result stands in sharp contrast to the highly publicized case of Diana Levine, a professional musician from Vermont. Her hand and forearm were amputated because of gangrene after a physician assistant at a health clinic injected her with the same drug. She sued the drug maker, Wyeth, and won $6.8 million.
The financial outcomes were radically different for one reason: Ms. Schork had received the generic version of the drug, known as promethazine, while Ms. Levine had been given the brand name, Phenergan.
“Explain the difference between the generic and the real one — it’s just a different company making the same thing,” Ms. Schork said.
Across the country, dozens of lawsuits against generic pharmaceutical companies are being dismissed because of a Supreme Court decision last year that said the companies did not have control over what their labels said and therefore could not be sued for failing to alert patients about the risks of taking their drugs.
Now, what once seemed like a trivial detail — whether to take a generic or brand-name drug — has become the deciding factor in whether a patient can seek legal recourse from a drug company. The cases range from that of Ms. Schork, who wasn’t told which type of drug she had been given when she visited the hospital, to people like Camille Baruch, who developed a gastrointestinal disease after taking a generic form of the drug Accutane, as required by her health care plan.
“Your pharmacists aren’t telling you, hey, when we fill this with your generic, you are giving up all of your legal remedies,” said Michael Johnson, a lawyer who represented Gladys Mensing, one of the patients who sued generic drug companies in last year’s Supreme Court case, Pliva v. Mensing. “You have a disparate impact between one class of people and another.” ”
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Is it just me, or is there something that ain’t right about that?
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Saw a joke elsewhere re: the Fed.
Fed joins twitter, immediately increases supply of chartacters from 140 to 1400
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I remember that SCOUTS rulling from last summer:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/23/us-genericdrugs-labeling-warning-idUSTRE75M3RT20110623
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And the “companion” ruling to Mensing (from NoVA) is Wyeth v. Levine from 2009, which is mentioned in the second paragraph of jnc’s quote. Pre-emption for generics, but not for brand name drugs.
Caveat emptor.
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new CMS demo annouced re: increasing the availabitliy of primary care by increaseing the number of advanced practice nurses
http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/gne/
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“Mike, on March 21, 2012 at 10:03 am said: Edit Comment
And the “companion” ruling to Mensing (from NoVA) is Wyeth v. Levine from 2009, which is mentioned in the second paragraph of jnc’s quote. Pre-emption for generics, but not for brand name drugs.
Caveat emptor.”
The nifty part will be when all of the subsidized plans in the ACA exchanges and Medicare/Medicaid require generics instead of brand names to save money.
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Most private insurance currently mandates generics when available. I wonder what liability the insurance companies have for these requirements. This is one of those unintended consequences situations where whatever rules led to this situation are protecting someone not meriting it.
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Good day today:
“Supreme Court allows Idaho couple to challenge EPA on wetlands ruling
By Robert Barnes, Updated: Wednesday, March 21, 11:47 AM
The Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously ruled for an Idaho couple who have been in a four-year battle with the Environmental Protection Agency over the government’s claim that the land on which they plan to build a home contains sensitive wetlands.
The decision allows Mike and Chantell Sackett to go to court to challenge the agency’s order.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-allows-idaho-couple-to-challenge-epa-on-wetlands-ruling/2012/03/21/gIQAFgdsRS_story.html?hpid=z3
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“yellojkt, on March 21, 2012 at 12:32 pm said: Edit Comment
Most private insurance currently mandates generics when available. I wonder what liability the insurance companies have for these requirements. This is one of those unintended consequences situations where whatever rules led to this situation are protecting someone not meriting it.”
Who would be the person who doesn’t merit protection? You can’t hold a generic manufacturer liable for using the precise label that Federal Law requires them to use.
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As I recall, the Supremes invited Congress to fix the mess it created, because a Court really cannot. So if we ever have a working Congress, it may fix this. Ashot and QB are probably more familiar with liability theories than I, b/c none of this is in my area, but I assume there are other possible products liability theories than failure to warn.
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Is this just a labeling issue? I know so very little about this, to my detriment. On all but one private insurance policy I have had over the years, I was not required to use generics — but my copay was tripled if I purchased brand name when generic was available. So there definitely is financial incentive insurance-wise to use generics. When one lives paycheck-to-paycheck, $20/month vs. $60/month for one prescription for a chronic condition is a pretty clear choice. Is a caution on a label going to override the financial decision? I think consumers expect a generic to have no more risk than the brand name.
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“I think consumers expect a generic to have no more risk than the brand name.”
Note that the drug itself isn’t any riskier than the brand name. It’s about your right to sue due to potential errors or omissions on the mandated label.
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Love the joke. As Nissan is bringing back the Datsun name, here’s one I learned as a kid.
A fledgling Japanese automobile company asked a veteran German auto maker to suggest a name for its new car.
“We need a name no later than tomorrow,” said the Japanese official.
“Dat soon?” replied the surprised German.
And Nissan’s famous Datsun series was born.
BB
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