Paul Rogat Loeb: STIFFED: Why are Bailed-Out Banks Helping Pfizer Buy Wyeth?

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Stiffed: Why Are Bailed-Out Banks Helping Pfizer Buy Wyeth?
Edited on Wed Jan-28-09 01:22 AM by Paul Rogat Loeb

Are U.S. taxpayers getting stiffed? Pfizer, Viagra's daddy, is using money from taxpayer-bailed-out banks to help buy major pharmaceutical competitor Wyeth in a $68 billion deal. That won't help taxpayers or consumers. Nor is it designed to. It will harm the companies' workers, 20,000 of whom will likely be laid off. It's even likely to hurt small bio-tech companies, drying up potential sources of capital and leaving fewer potential major investors or purchasers.

The deal may be good for Pfizer, helping the company recover from a $2.3 billion legal settlement over misleading marketing on the pain reliever Bextra, and helping them amplify the clout of the $3 million they recently spent lobbying against the right to import cheaper drugs from Canada. But it won't help the rest of us.

So why are banks bailed out with taxpayer dollars furnishing the $22.5 billion of debt financing for this deal?

...more at the link over in DU Editorials and Other Articles

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN - WATCH THE BAILOUT MAKE OLD WHITE GUY CEOS RICH AND THOUSANDS OF EVERYDAY
EMPLOYEES POOR AND BANKRUPT

[Jim Sagle]

1. Why? Because they can.

[CoffeeCat]

2. I'm seriously wondering if the banks...

...were even the recipients of the bailout money.

The banks are a convenient vehicle that can be used to launder and funnel the money--to
select corporations. However, how do we even know that the banks are using that bailout
money?

They've absolutely refused to tell us what they're doing with that money. They won't account
for it. They said they were buying up toxic assets. That wasn't done. Then, they said that
they were going to freeze up the credit markets, and we all know that they aren't making loans.

I think, ladies and gentlemen, that the bailout money was put in a pile--and the corporations
that own this government will get money to enrich themselves, make themselves bigger or
recoup losses from lawsuits, etc.

Is it really coincidence that big Pharma gets the benefit of bailout money, when they've
been part of the corporate world that has dominated, lobbied and paid off our politicians
for years? Next, I bet the oil companies catch a windfall.

Paulson asked for this money and demanded it NOW--and even threatened Martial Law--because
he knew they had to have that bailout money before the economy really started tanking.

Anyone who doesn't get that the bailout was a big heist, is in denial.

[Dover]

3. Is the current trend toward consolidation part of a plan for global restructuring?

Or is it opportunism? Probably a bit of both. There are plenty of white papers written about the necessity for companies to become more 'efficient' via cutting back the excessive number of competitors and merging/consolidating the bigger players (google IMF - "consolidation", for instance). So that is definitely one model that is being pursued. And IF that is the primary model
influencing policy and monetary decisions, then you have to wonder how they might go about creating an environment that makes its implementation possible and more affordable, while also shedding things like labor unions and pensions. Would it look something like what we have now? Have they stashed all their money away in some offshore accounts for just such a 'rainy day' to tide them over?

And of course, so long as the American people aren't making any fuss about footing the bill for much of the expense of such a transition (paying in more ways than one), why not?

Whatever the new 'model' might be, I get the feeling that we aren't going to become transparent enough to share the plan openly with the American public. I don't see any significant shift away from privatization and free market ideas by the Dems yet, so have to assume that's still part of the plan as well.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

4. Why do people criticize pfizer so much for Viagra?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

5. This article (in the GD forum) was front paged today and had 21 recommends

Funny that.