Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

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• Hooked on Prescription Drugs - Half of US Took at least One Prescription Drug in Previous Month
• Sunday Funnies 2010-09-05 Voting Trends
• Driver's License Facility, State Lawmakers Face Eviction Over Nonpayment of Bills by State of Illinois
• Dissolving Cities - Is this the Way Out?

Hooked on Prescription Drugs - Half of US Took at least One Prescription Drug in Previous Month Posted: 05 Sep 2010 01:10 PM PDT Here is an interesting article on Bloomberg regarding prescription drug usage. The study is from 2008. Please consider Prescription Drug Use Rose to Include Half of Americans in 2008. Almost half of Americans took at least one prescription drug per month in 2008, an increase of 10 percent over the past decade, a U.S. study found. One of every five children ages 11 or younger took at least one medication each month in 2008, led by asthma and allergy treatments, according to the survey released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among those ages 60 or older, 37 percent used five or more prescriptions per month. The most common medications for adolescents were treatments for attention-deficit disorder, a condition in which people have trouble paying attention and engage in impulsive behavior. For adults ages 20 to 59, antidepressants, including Eli Lilly & Co.'s Cymbalta and Pfizer Inc.'s Zoloft, were the most-used drugs. Cholesterol-lowering medications, including Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor and AstraZeneca Plc's Crestor, were the most common drugs taken by people ages 60 and over, with 45 percent of those in that age group on such therapies. $238 Billion Industry Prescription drug were a $234.1billion industry in 2008. The number is certainly higher today. Are pharmaceutical companies interested in curing anything or just treating the symptoms? Throughout grade and high school, I do not recall any kids with attention problems. How is it that attention-deficit disorder is now so widespread? Are kids today different? Why? I do not like the way drugs are advertised. Is anyone else with me on this? What's up with the "ask your doctor about the purple pill" campaign? What does the color have to do with reasons to take a pill. The most annoying thing about the ad are versions that do not even say what the drug is for, they simply stress the color purple, telling you to ask your doctor about it. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Sunday Funnies 2010-09-05 Voting Trends Posted: 05 Sep 2010 12:37 PM PDT Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Driver's License Facility, State Lawmakers Face Eviction Over Nonpayment of Bills by State of Illinois Posted: 05 Sep 2010 09:01 AM PDT The state of Illinois is sitting on $4 billion in unpaid bills. Some of that is to hospitals, some to schools, some of it is internal transfers, but a lot of it affects the lives of real people who need the money to pay their bills. For example, please consider Libertyville driver's license facility may be evicted Stephen Martin, whose family owns the Brookside shopping center on the 300 block of Peterson Road that houses the Secretary of State office, has sent a letter to state officials saying he wishes to terminate the lease agreement because of the long-overdue payments. Martin said the state owes him nearly $43,000 in back rent and expenses. It's not the first time the state has fallen behind on payments for the facility, which opened in 1987, Martin said. Payments were six months overdue by the time a check was cut in December, and this past April the state owed Martin four months worth of rent when it finally paid. If the state doesn't pay up this time, Martin said, he will go to court and begin eviction proceedings. The delinquent rent checks are symptomatic of the state's ongoing financial problems. The comptroller's office has $4.3 billion in unpaid bills in its system, spokesman Alan Henry said this week. Several state lawmakers have faced eviction because of late payments; just this week, state Rep. Sandy Cole of Grayslake temporarily began working out of her house because her office was shut down. Without a doubt, Illinois is bankrupt. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Dissolving Cities - Is this the Way Out? Posted: 05 Sep 2010 12:43 AM PDT Some cities in California are so bloated in debt and other problems they are considering dissolution. Mercury News asks is this The End of Half Moon Bay? Between budget losses and lawsuit payments, Half Moon Bay's financials have become so dire that if a local sales tax measure doesn't pass this November, officials say they may have to disincorporate. City leaders have been using the "D" word for a few weeks now as they try to persuade voters to pass Measure K, a one-cent sales tax increase that would help the city balance its budget with an extra infusion of $1.4 million per year for the next seven years. Dissolving Half Moon Bay -- handing the city's budget, operations and services to San Mateo County -- would be an absolute last resort, but the city may not have many other options left, City Councilman John Muller said. At first glance, disincorporation could save taxpayers some money: no more city administration to support. Police services would be contracted out, and the county would cover planning, building and public works projects from its offices in Redwood City. City Manager Michael Dolder admits disincorporation is one of the options on the table now. The City Council already cut $900,000 from the current budget -- including half its employees -- and imposed furloughs on those who remain. Some of the cuts were needed to pay for the Beachwood lawsuit settlement, a $15 million burden the city will shoulder in bond payments for the next 20 years. Disincorporation is so rare in California that it's almost without precedent. The last city to do it, Cabazon in Riverside County, had fewer than 2,000 residents and no functional government to speak of when it voted to give up cityhood. The process is so complicated that county officials said they don't know what kinds of services the Board of Supervisors would choose to provide or how much they would cost. One thing is certain: disincorporation is not a bailout. The county would lay claim to revenues, including Half Moon Bay's property taxes, sales taxes and hotel taxes, but not its liabilities. Today's Half Moon Bay residents would be required to assume the debt burden of Beachwood bond payments, which would likely be added as a lien on their properties, according to Assistant County Controller Bob Adler. D Is for Disincorporate The PropZero blog writes California Cities: D Is for Disincorporate City officials in Half Moon Bay say the municipal budget is such a mess that it may make sense to disincorporate and turn the place over to San Mateo County Consider Los Angeles County which has 88 cities, many of which it clearly does not need. Several of the smaller cities seem to exist as personal playgrounds for families or particular businesses. Those municipalities -- the now famous Bell just one of them -- have extensive histories of municipal corruption. If such cities were to go away, would they be missed? A side note: unions have revived legislation in Sacramento that seeks to prevent cash-strapped cities from declaring bankruptcy (Municipalities would have to get permission from a labor-dominated commission first). The consequence of that legislation, were it to pass, might well be to promote more disincorporations -- that is, the shutting down of cities -- since bankruptcy would be all but off the table. Simple Solution Unions have revived measures to prevent municipal bankruptcies, but hopefully the governor would veto such asinine legislation were it to actually pass. I doubt there would be enough votes to override the veto. The problem with disincorporation straight up is that it leaves the debts intact. Instead, I propose Half Moon Bay file bankruptcy, wiping out its debts, or at least sending them to bankruptcy court. Then Half Moon Bay can disincorporate, saving itself the problems of dealing with a local police force and its pensions. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

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