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Strategies & Market Trends : ahhaha's ahs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ahhaha who wrote (3656)	11/29/2001 11:45:41 AM
From: Ahda	Respond to of 24758

Thursday November 29 11:13 AM ET U.S. Should Not Rush to Regulate Broadband - Report Audio/Video WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government should not wade in to regulate broadband networks, an independent panel of experts said on Thursday, giving a boost to telephone giants who do not want to open up their networks to rivals. The National Research Council (news - web sites) said in a report it favored competition over government regulation for firms that provide the high-speed networks, which can transmit voice, data and video simultaneously. ``Now is the time for the government to be patient and let the private sector continue investing in greater deployment of broadband so that more people can -- and do -- make use of its capabilities,'' said Nikil Jayant, the panel's chair. ``However, once the market takes shape, the federal government may need to step in to help improve service where broadband availability is lacking or to address any abuses of market power that might occur,'' he added. At the moment, telephone giants like Verizon (NYSE:VZ - news) and SBC Communications (NYSE:SBC - news) must prove to federal and state regulators that their local networks are open to rivals, before they can offer long-distance voice and data services. The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote soon on a measure, pushed by the dominant local telephone companies, that would kill this requirement and allow companies to deploy new networks without selling off chunks of existing systems to rivals. Key senators have said they oppose the bill in its present form and long-distance telephone heavyweights AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) and Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON - news) have lobbied against it. In its report ``Broadband: Bringing Home the Bits,'' the panel said while there was no need for knee-jerk regulation, both local and federal governments could help jump-start broadband networks. The U.S. government could offer tax credits to lure companies into investing in underserved or high-cost regions and offer grants to states to run pilot programs. And city officials should apply the same logic to the broadband networks that they apply to streets -- both are needed to facilitate business. The researchers said that in the same way a city pays to build and maintain streets, so it could pay for conduits that house the fiber-optic cables needed to transmit high-speed data. Government between the airline industry and communication could be finding that the three year projected budget deficit is going to be much longer than anticipated. Enrons expansion building infrastructure elsewhere and that infrastructure and subsequent debt proved I feel to be its demise. Soon PE and research investment based on a lower percentage of debt that is wisely tied to present earnings will be vogue. Deregulation or is this a teenagers taste of freedom? Does this causes increased debt and bubbles that should of been popped when they were miniscule in size.

To: ahhaha who wrote (3656)	11/29/2001 12:00:40 PM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24758

And yet, that is what he is doing: washtimes.com He can't do that yet.

To: ahhaha who wrote (3656)	11/29/2001 9:58:15 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24758

Thursday November 29, 8:59 pm Eastern Time Drug industry most US profitable, survey finds By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The drug industry, which spends more than any other industry on consumer advertising in the United States, is also the most profitable, researchers said on Thursday. The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that does research into health and family issues, said Americans are buying more drugs than in the past and are spending more for them. ``Compared to other industries, the pharmaceutical sector continues to earn the highest profit rates,'' the report reads. ``Profits as a percent of revenues for the pharmaceutical industry have been more than four times the median rate for all Fortune 500 firms in the late 1990s (18.6 percent of revenues compared to 4.5 percent for all Fortune 500 firms in 2000.)'' The foundation's Larry Levitt, who helped direct the study, said Americans fill 3 billion prescriptions a year, or 11 per person on average. ``We now spend $117 billion a year on drugs,'' Levitt told a news conference. ``We are taking more drugs,'' he added. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are developing more and more prescription drugs. ``As these new drugs come on the market, the average prices of drugs continues to go up,'' Levitt said. He said all 20 top-selling drugs are brand-name. ``The result is the average price of a prescription is now $45 -- double what it was 10 years ago.'' This is triple the average generic price. ``So efforts to encourage the use of generics have not helped a great deal and in fact may have failed in reducing costs,'' Levitt said. Costs may be increasing due in part to the huge amount that companies spend advertising their drugs to potential patients and promoting them to doctors, Levitt said. ``Since 1996 the amount spent on drug ads has more than tripled,'' he said. He said drug companies spent $15.7 billion promoting drugs in 2000, or 14 percent of revenues. That compared to 3.7 percent of sales revenues spent on promotion by department stores, 3.9 percent for tobacco products, 10.7 percent for soap and detergent, and 12 percent for games and toys. ``Drugs are among the more promotion-intensive products,'' Levitt said. ``In terms of promotional intensity, drugs look most similar to toys and dolls.'' The report found that drug companies spend only 14 percent of revenues on research and development, although drug companies often argue that drugs are expensive because they cost so much to develop. ``Profits also exceeded R and D (24 percent compared to 14 percent),'' the report reads. But Americans, and their insurance companies, are buying and will probably continue to do so as the population ages. ``National spending for prescription drugs, projected to be $116.9 billion in 2000, has almost tripled since 1990,'' the report reads. ``Although prescription drugs represent only 10 percent of personal health care spending, they are the fastest growing segment of health care spending, accounting for 20 percent of the estimated increase in such spending between 1999 and 2000,'' it says. The Kaiser Family Foundation identified the top five most-advertised prescription drugs as Merck and Co.'s (NYSE:MRK anti-inflammatory Vioxx; AstraZeneca's (NYSE:AZN ) anti-ulcer drug Prilosec; Schering-Plough's (NYSE:SGP ) antihistamine Claritin; GlaxoSmithKline's (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: GSK.L antidepressant Paxil; and Merck's anti-cholesterol drug Zocor.

To: ahhaha who wrote (3656)	11/29/2001 10:22:19 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24758

I had said that FED has been stingy. The below evidence, at least for November, doesn't strongly support such a claim. The data below would imply about a $50 billion/yr rate. During the last 6 months it has been running as high as an $80 billion/yr rate. Jury's out. Monday, Nov 26, 2001 Fed added $943 million reserves via coupon pass - 11:17 am Tuesday, Nov 20, 2001 Fed adds $705 mln in permanent bank reserves via coupon pass - 3:31 pm Wednesday, Nov 14, 2001 Fed adds $2.09 bln in permanent bank reserves via bill pass - 10:52 am Thursday, Nov 8, 2001 Fed's coupon pass adds $729 mln in reserves - 1:25 pm