@Pricknick

Cartel:

Everything involving capitalism is a cartel. Even our current form of government. Which should be prosecuted first?

1. an international syndicate, combine, or trust formed especially to regulate prices and output in some field of business.
2. a coalition of political or special-interest groups having a common cause, as to encourage the passage of a certain law.
3. a written agreement between belligerents, especially for the exchange of prisoners.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cartel

Remove the term "international" from Item 1 in the above list. Cartels can and do exist within nations; the USA is particularly badly infested at the moment.

Given that, all forms of governance are cartels, including and especially all forms the State may take -- governments -- whether capitalist or not.

It's one disadvantage of the State out of many.

Everything involving capitalism is a cartel. Even our current form of government. Which should be prosecuted first?

1. an international syndicate, combine, or trust formed especially to regulate prices and output in some field of business.
2. a coalition of political or special-interest groups having a common cause, as to encourage the passage of a certain law.
3. a written agreement between belligerents, especially for the exchange of prisoners.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cartel

@dance you monster

One might bring RICO into this, since the scale of this looks ripe for multiple counts of all charges in multiple jurisdictions, but price-fixing normally is prosecuted under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

I'm not a lawyer, but it's my understanding that RICO comes in with respect to the specific persons in each of the perpetrating companies who are responsible for the price fixing. Sherman comes in to punish the corporations themselves in the only way possible -- amercing them -- while you use RICO to throw the responsible "natural biological humans" in the penitentiary.

. . . since the scale of this looks ripe for multiple counts of all charges in multiple jurisdictions, but price-fixing normally is prosecuted under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Can be done at the federal or state levels. And it looks like that's in the works, for this to have gotten so far they're comfy letting it be publicized in the WaPo.

@snoopydawg but the pharmacies can order from CHINA!

Three more blood pressure drugs recalled over cancer

The generic drug company Mylan Pharmaceuticals recalled 104 lots of three medications: valsartan tablets, combination tablets with the drugs valsartan and amlodipine, and combination tablets with valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide.

Testing revealed that valsartan contained trace amounts of N-nitrosodiethylamine, or NDEA, a possible human carcinogen, the company said.

Irbesartan and losartan also recalled. (no link)

I think I'll stop taking my meds. I'd rather die of a heart attack or stroke than cancer. The big risk is having a stroke and not dying.

Americans couldn’t order prescription drugs from another country

This should have been one of the first things that was negotiated for the ACA. Or that pharmaceutical companies had to stop raising prices for generics. But no ... that wasn't the reason congress passed the ACA the way they did. It priced many people out of the insurance market.

This is most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States,” Nielsen said. He cited the volume of drugs in the schemes, that they took place on American soil and the “total number of companies involved, and individuals.”

I wouldn't put it past the government to be looking the other way when they upped the prices of drugs that had been available for many decades. What do they care if a few million of us die because we can't afford our medications? . the resources are not going to last forever ya know. And hell yes RICO their asses!

On a side note I read something a few years ago about how Israel bought a generic drug company and that was when a lot generic drug prices went up.

@snoopydawg

reportedly killed a bill that would specifically allowed importation of drugs from Canada.

I have trouble finding the article now, but I read that at the time it happened. And, of course, Cory Booker helped Republicans do the same much more recently. You may remember that Cory Booker was an official Obama 2012 re-election campaign surrogate whom the campaign pulled off the talk show circuit for a time because he said that he did not agree with anti-business rhetoric. I doubt Obama agreed with it, except when his competition in that election consisted of Bain Capital, the Kochs and Bain-made billionaire, Mitt Romney.

Of course, it was Bush who signed Medicare Part D, which, among other things, prohibited the US government from negotiating drug prices on behalf of Medicare recipients.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/obamacare-prescription-drugs-phar... (Although I am citing it, I do take issue with the wording of one statement in this article: the drug industry did not torpedo the 1993 feint at a national health care plan; Democrats did, in part because they were rip shit about Hillary's handling of it. Drug companies can do whatever they do, which is a lot, but they do not directly vote on what happens to a bill in Congress.)

Americans couldn’t order prescription drugs from another country

This should have been one of the first things that was negotiated for the ACA. Or that pharmaceutical companies had to stop raising prices for generics. But no ... that wasn't the reason congress passed the ACA the way they did. It priced many people out of the insurance market.

This is most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States,” Nielsen said. He cited the volume of drugs in the schemes, that they took place on American soil and the “total number of companies involved, and individuals.”

I wouldn't put it past the government to be looking the other way when they upped the prices of drugs that had been available for many decades. What do they care if a few million of us die because we can't afford our medications? . the resources are not going to last forever ya know. And hell yes RICO their asses!

On a side note I read something a few years ago about how Israel bought a generic drug company and that was when a lot generic drug prices went up.

@UntimelyRippd
arudemotherfucker.
Well done.

Next thing you know, it'll turn out that young and vulnerable aspirants in the performing arts are coerced into giving sexual favors to powerful producers, directors and star performers who are the gatekeepers to success!