08.15.09
The Poor People of Redmond, Rich Uncle Bill, and the Pharmaceutical Cartel
Redmond Town Center
Summary: A group of new reports from Washington (the state), put into a reasonable perspective
THE Pharmaceutical Cartel is known for its unjust division between rich and poor (patents come before lives). It is a serious moral issue and Bill Gates happens to be a huge investor in such a cartel. According to this new report from the Wall Street Journal, there are many transactions being made there right now, symbolising either a strategic shift or a case of raking in the earnings.
The [Gates] foundation also sold millions of shares in major drug makers, including 14.9 million shares in Schering-Plough Corp., almost 1 million shares in Eli Lilly & Co., 8.1 million shares in Merck & Co. and 3.7 million shares in Wyeth, over the same time period. The foundation no longer holds shares in any of those companies.
Among the other health and life sciences-related investments the foundation liquidated are Allos Therapeutics Inc., InterMune Inc., Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.
That is a very diverse portfolio which saturates the Pharmaceutical Cartel with even more money to be at its disposal. Meanwhile, according to another new report, there is some extreme poverty at Redmond, which ought to remind people what sort of environment is discriminated against in a land without national health care.
It takes viewers on a quick tour through Tent City 4, located about a mile from Microsoft on the grounds of St Jude’s Catholic Church in Redmond. Nearly 100 people live there, most having lost jobs and homes during the past year — Eastside unemployment is almost 10 percent. The encampment is full, and newcomers are turned away every night.
[...]
Tent cities are no substitute for residential neighborhoods or apartment buildings, but the current economic downturn, combined with the region’s perennial scarcity of affordable apartments and homes, makes this free low-barrier housing seem a necessary stopgap. Many homeless people would choose living in a tent in a well-run encampment over spending a night at a time in a Seattle city shelter, where one lies down beside strangers in a big barracks-style room. When a shelter closes in the morning, people generally must leave without a guaranteed bed for the following night and carry their belongings with them.
According to another item from the news (it has actually entered the news feeds), a program manager from Microsoft is selling his house while his company is squeezing small companies for money, breaking promises in the process. All it all, it does not look quite so pleasant and unrest seems justified. █
Charles Oliver said,
August 15, 2009 at 10:37 pm
“That is a very diverse portfolio which saturates the Pharmaceutical Cartel with even more money to be at its disposal.”
That’s not how share ownership works. The Gate Foundation sold the shares, therefore they get the cash. Schering-Plough Corp et al get nothing. The only way a company benefits from the sale of simple stock is when they issue and thence sell shares.
Large shifts out of a segment might be indicative of a perceived weakness but whereever there is a seller, there is a buyer. What would be interesting is whether the Gates foundation have sold on a high or made a loss from these sales.