Category Archives: Economics

6% of companies make 50% of U.S. profit

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Alexander Szewczak

From an analysis done by USA Today: Just 28 companies in the S&P 500 index generate 50% of all the net income. Of those, Apple and JPMorgan Chase together make 10% of the profits. Berkshire Hathaway, Wells Fargo, Gilead Sciences … Continue reading →

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Biopharmaceutical Innovation Hubs and the Future of Work

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Alexander Szewczak

Innovation hubs such as metro Boston are all the rage.  Urban living is back in style, face-to-face communication trounces teleconferences, and innovation-starved pharma companies are looking to academic centers for new targets and new enabling technologies.  Academic institutions in turn are looking … Continue reading →

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U.S. Treasury moves to close tax inversion loophole

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Alexander Szewczak

AstraZeneca (down 5%) and Shire (down 6%) shares lost a total of $8 billion in market cap Tuesday.  Abbvie, the company on the other end of the Shire deal, was down 4.6% in premarket trading.  These biopharmaceutical firms (and a … Continue reading →

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AbbVie will buy Shire in another Pharma tax inversion strategy

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Alexander Szewczak

Following on the heels of Mylan, AbbVie will buy Shire in a move that, among other things, will result in a significantly lower tax rate when the redomiciled company is fully headquartered in Ireland. More information can be found here (WSJ) and here … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Pharmaceutical Industry | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A new tool for measuring National economic output

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Alexander Szewczak

Starting April 25, the Bureau of Economic Analysis will begin reporting quarterly measurements of gross output. Gross output represents, roughly speaking, the total value of sales by producing enterprises (their turnover) in an accounting period (e.g. a quarter or a year), before subtracting the … Continue reading →

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Tom Sargent’s 12 lessons from economics

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Alexander Szewczak

“Economics is organized common sense. Here is a short list of valuable lessons that our beautiful subject teaches.” 1. Many things that are desirable are not feasible. 2. Individuals and communities face trade-offs. 3. Other people have more information about … Continue reading →

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