Thoughts while … Regulatory relief as proposed by the new administration should have a big impact on job growth. I have worked in a highly regulated industry – healthcare – and know firsthand the impact of zealous over-regulation.
FDA regulations relating to the development and commercialization of new life saving medical devices has led to the export of our know-how to other countries since the early 1990s. This is when David Kessler assumed the role of FDA Commissioner and proposed regulating devices the same way we regulate drugs.
And it was at this time that I moved my company’s clinical research to South America. It was either that or going out of business. This was a period fraught with long delays in the approval process and filled with many companies going out of business.
In 1990, bringing a new medical device to the market took 3-5 years and cost about $20 million. Today, the numbers are $100 million and 9-10 years. This has led to a depressed capital market for young US medical device companies and has seriously eroded our global leadership role in medical technology. Other countries (China, India) are moving to fill the vacuum that is growing.
Most Americans unless they are job creators have no idea how badly regulations have hurt American enterprise.
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“Let each thing you do, say or intend be like that of a dying person” – Marcus Aurelius.
Death is one prophecy that never fails” (Edmund Wilson) Once you realize this, it will have a profound effect on what you do, say, and think. Don’t let a another day tick away in ignorance of the reality that you are a dying person. We all are. Can today be the day we stop pretending otherwise?
– Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic
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Thoughts while reading about #Italy‘s pivotal national #referendum on Sunday…Former #TheEconomist editors #JohnMicklethwaite and #AdrianWooldridge are looking prescient. They wrote in their 2015 book, “#TheFourthRevolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State” that the primary political challenge of the next decade would be “fixing government.” The authors explained that government has become integral to defining what rights you have, such as the right to monitor your emails, the right to set forth whom you must hire, and to whom you must rent your church hall. The government, which was once an occasional partner in life, has today become a tyrannical nanny. First #Brexit, then Trump (#MAGA), now #Italy and possibly, the #EU…
“An era is going up in flames,” said #BeppeGrillo, an Italian comedian, actor, blogger and political activist.“It’s the risk-takers, the stubborn, the barbarians who will carry the world forward…”
See Italy’s Brexit moment? The complex constitutional referendum that could rock Europe.
How to understand this weekend’s big Italian vote, in which Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s reforms were defeated by a landslide.
WASHINGTONPOST.COM|BY ADAM TAYLOR
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Thoughts while reading that consumer sentiment hit the highest level in ten years this month….Maybe so, but the following facts show we have a lot of work ahead of us to sustain that…
Total Federal Government Debt $20+ trillion
Local and State Debt $ 3+ trillion
Total Taxpayer Short Term Liability $23+ trillion
Debt to GDP ratio 121%
Federal Debt increased $10 trillion in last 8 years
Federal Debt increased $ 1.3 trillion this past year
Federal, state, and local unfunded liabilities (additional taxpayer liability) = $100 trillion
US Federal spending level = $3.88 trillion (2016)
State and local outlays = $3.3 trillion
Total use of taxpayers funds = $7.2 trillion
Total US debt including private and business debt = $67 trillion, 400% of GDP
123.7 million people are in the US labor force today
A record 94.6 million people are not in the US labor force today
The Labor Force Participation Rate, 62.4%, is at a 38 year low
The US unemployment rate in October was 4.9%
The US underemployment rate in October was 12.7%
Real unemployment was 15 million (2x the official number) due to how unemployment is counted
43 million people living in poverty
43 million receiving food stamps
57 million enrolled in Medicare
73 million enrolled in Medicaid
31 million without health insurance
2 million prison inmates
See U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
US National Debt Clock : Real Time U.S. National Debt Clock – USDEBTCLOCK.ORG
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Thoughts while watching the the stock market’s “Trump Bump”…Small companies have been leading the recent stock market surge. This bodes well for our nation’s job creation engine which has been stifled for years by regulation, taxes, and the inability to secure growth capital. Will 2017 be the breakout year for the economic growth and in turn, job creation for the unemployed and the underemployed?
See In Stock-Market Rally, Small Beats Large
Small companies have been among the biggest winners since Election Day, with the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks up 11%, as investors bet on a rollback of taxes and regulations and more infrastructure spending.
