David Anderson writing at Balloon Juice has the late stage capitalism laugh of the day.
The Washington Post has a blockbuster on collusion between generic drug manufacturers:
Executives at more than a dozen generic-drug companies had a form of shorthand to describe how they conducted business, insider lingo worked out over steak dinners, cocktail receptions and rounds of golf.
The “sandbox,” according to investigators, was the market for generic prescription drugs, where everyone was expected to play nice…
Officials from multiple states say these practices were central to illegal price-fixing schemes of massive proportion.
Generic drugs have the ability to offer large costs savings. Those savings only occur when there is real competition. Research ** has shown that generic drugs are significantly cheaper than brand name drugs when there are many manufacturers.
Collusion and c Conspiracy to fix prices is a direct pickpocketing by the generic manufacturers out of the pockets of patients and insurers.
This is going to be a huge deal if the collusion conspiracy can be proven.