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Under a new program to increased spending on healthcare from 1.3% of GDP to 2.5% the Indian government plans to provide free pharmaceuticals at state run hospitals. This is expected to cost $5 billion over 5 years. Initially 350 drugs would be on a list of essential medicines and would be purchased from generics manufacturers in India. Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, heads the committee advising the Indian government on healthcare. He says this will help improve access to medicines for the vast majority of the people. Estimates show 70% of out of pocket medical costs for Indians come from spending on drugs. About 40 million people are pushed into poverty each year because of the high cost of medicines, says Dr. Reddy. He said that in 1984 31% of the medicines at government run hospitals were provided free to admitted patients, dropping to 9% in 2004. For outpatients this dropped from 18% to 5%. The free medicine program would be part of a larger universal health care program to be introduced over the next decade. India's large generics pharmaceutical industry makes the provision of free medicines on a large scale a feasible option in India because of the lower prices, with additional pricing advantages when purchased in larger volumes by the government. This would also have a major impact on the quality of healthcare in the country of 1.2 billion people for a relatively small investment. It also promotes a sense of fairness and equal access because the benefits of decades of modernization have been unevenly distributed and because of widespread poverty....

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Dershowitz defended Mr. Trump in the impeachment trial in 2020. He says the case is not like that against president Nixon, where there was destroying of evidence and wilful obstruction. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 is relevant says Dershowitz, which lays out detailed procedures for handling records of former president, and a civil process for resolving disputes. The case itself evolved out of non compliance with special counsel Jack Smith by Mr. Trump in the way Biden and Pence returned the classified material immediately and cooperated with investigators, says Dershowitz. 

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How unknown brand Vizio, started by a Taiwanese expatriate with equity ownership by suppliers of flat panels are bringing low priced flat panels to Costco and to American customers.

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Jack Ewing of the NYT provides this exceptional account of how a solution can emerge in the Greece crisis based on debt sustainability relief. On this issue of debt sustainabilty relief without immediate haircuts but stretching the payments over an extended period with still lower rates, there is a consenus emerging with the IMF and France, putting forward the idea, and Germany showing awillingness to consider this. It would also restore some unity in the European Union with France and Germany moving in the same direction with a common goal.

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U.S. president Trump makes a call to Taiwan president Tsai Ing-Wen, which was arranged by former Senator Bob Dole. The call went into details about stability in Asia-Pacific. In Twitter posts Trump was critical of China for currency policies and activity in South China Sea.

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Chancellor points out that economists from Irving Fisher in 1929 to Ben Bernanke in the mid-1990's have often played the role of academic shills during each successive period of "This Time its Different, " claiming that there was some new event, technology, or innovation, that justified higher valuations of assets and higher institutional debt levels. He quotes Walter Bagehot who says about merchants and bankers of his day-" they fancy the prosperity they see will last always, that it is only the beginning of a greater prosperity." The significance of the book is that it suggests an hypothesis that is quite different from the general idea in 2011 that there won't be a protracted period of slow or marginal growth after a bubble of this nature. Because the bubble is also in other countries, in countries of the euro-zone, China, Turkey, Brazil, and other countries, the situation takes a much longer time to heal.

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The U.S. Treasury Dept reported that Japan's holdings of Treasurys increased to $1.12 trillion in August 2012, compared to China's holdings of $1.15 trillion. Japan increased its holdings as it continued its effort to stem the yens rise. China's holdings are declining.

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China's perception of the US as a declining power is a miscalculation, yet it appears to influence Chinese policy in 2010-2011.

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China's campaign against corruption and the popular programs that the Chinese government of Jinping encourages on television. This includes the 52 part series on television called "In the Name of the People." The programs show how the Communist party's upright officials stand up against the corrupt ones. The idea is to build up the reputation of the Communist Party, as it sagged under the previous administrations during the period of rapid growth when such behaviour was tolerated to in some ways.

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Chinese cars made by Cherry will come to the American market in 2008 priced at around $10000. UAW's refusal to extend concessions to Chrysler and Chrysler's loss of $1.5 billion in third quarter may have speeded up this deal with Cherry. From now on UAW will face additional pressure over costs as the Chinese cars enter the American market.

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This example of how Forest Laboratories hoped to market an antidepressant Lexapro to doctors through financial incentives to prescribe the drug is detailed in a document that was made public by the Senate's Special Committee on Aging. The document is the "Lexapro Fiscal 2004 Marketing Plan." Forest licensed Celexa from Lundeck of Denmark and brought it to the US market in 1998. Then as the drug's patent life was short it tinkered with it and developed a new version calling it Lexapro and introduced it in the US market in 2002. Withits marketing effort Lexapro had $2.3 billion in sales in 2008, while all the time generic versions of Celexa and other durgs in its class sell for afraction of the Lexapro price. For instance amonth's supply of 5 millgram tablets of Lexapro costs $87.99 at drugstore.com, while a month's supply of generic version of Prozac is $14.99. Forest spends a lot compared to its larger rivals on sending money to doctor's. In the plan $34.7 million was to go to pay 2,000 psychiatrists and primary care doctors to deliver 15,000 marketing lectures to their peers that year. $36 million was to go to providing lunch to doctors in their offices. Asks Senator Herb Kohl, a Democrat from Wisconsin who is chairman of the Committee on Aging- "is the line between medical education and marketing blurred." For these companies there was no line. ...

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Hona's hybrid technology is lighter and more suited to lighter vehicles compared to Toyota's hybrid and may offer better gas mileage. It will also cost less because Honda is trying to reduce the cost differential between the hybrid and the gasoline car to less than $2000 according to Mr Kato who heads R&D at Honda. Its new compact hybrid that its introducing in the US, European and Japanese markets next year will retail for around $18,000, or about $3000 less than the Prius. So the new Honda hybrid will have advantages and Honda hopes to sell 200,000 of these compact hybrids and in doing so also present itself as an environmentally friendly company. At the same time Toyota will not be standing still as its new revamped Prius will come out in 2010.