Friend or foe here is a site dedicated to all things Wal-Mart.
Via Kevin Drum. AS usual be sure to read the comment thread for some lively discussion.
Update: If I had been properly keeping up on my reading I would have seen this at Jaquandor’s place two days ago. He was far ahead of Kevin.
If these subjects interest you check out the 20 posts up at Catallarchy in the latest rendition of The Carnival of the Capitalists.
Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Danial Moore’s place. Plenty of good reading here for those interested in in issues related to business and economics.
Hat tip to Catallarchy for the reminder.
Update (3/2): Post date corrected, it is no longer April Fools day. Thanks, Tom.
For the FDA it appears that ‘B’ stands for babies. Why else would the FDA ignore the 23-4 vote of its scientific advisory panel and continue to withhold the morning after drug ‘Plan B’ from the over the counter retail market?
Well, perhaps babies and, as Mark Kleiman suggests, politics:
I’m prepared to bet that the FDA will eventually do the right thing. But how many unwanted pregnancies, leading to how many abortions, will result from this obviously political decision?
Yep, politics, and one more example of why such decisions should not be in the hands of political hacks.
Mark also says:
Once again, we can expect a deafening silence from the libertarians, whose sincerity about personal liberty I keep doing my level best not to doubt.
I don’t know if there will be a deafening silence or not. However, I suspect that most real libertarians not only would object to this decision but also argue that the FDA should not have any say in the matter at all, that it should not even exist as a government function.
Skimble quotes generously from this WSJ article and I give you just this little bit:
The program is supposed to encourage employers to retain prescription-drug coverage.
But companies are entitled to the subsidy regardless of how much of the cost they pick up themselves. As a result, it does nothing to halt the current rush by some employers to shift more costs to retirees.
In fact, benefits consultants are designing employer-sponsored prescription plans to save companies more money by unloading costs on their former workers without losing out on the new subsidy.
It makes me feel just so good to know that whatever part of my taxes is not going to support a Nevada swimming pool is going to help the bottom line of some government supported corporation.
Via Sisyphus Shrugged.