Arena wins approval

The FDA, as I expected, approve Arena's drug today, following last month's 18-4 Advisory Committee positive vote. The drug will sell under the name Belviq and is for weight loss - the first such drug approved in the last 13 years. The full release can be viewed here: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/arena-pharmaceuticals-eisai-announce-fda-171300471.html Congratulations to any who were long here. I believe the fun is just getting started. Best regards, Trond Hildahl

Return to 1981?

Very nice and succinct summary of why history cannot repeat itself right now. http://markdow.tumblr.com/post/24081371136/reagans-gone-youre-old-get-over-it Which reads in part: "The world of 1980 had tons of pent-up demand and gale-force tailwinds. Inflation and interest rates were coming down from high levels, household leverage was very, very low, financial innovation non-existent, consumption had been deferred, and demography was coiled as the baby boomers were just coming on line. On the government side, unions were powerful, price and wage controls were a reality, and tax rates were high. This was the ideal set up for supply side reforms. "Fast-forward to post-2008. Whatever the opposite of pent-up demand is, that’s what we have. Inflation and interest rates are already low, household leverage is a major burden, consumption was pulled forward during the boom, and demography is no longer our friend. Plus, we have globalization acting like a supply shock to our labor pool, holding down wages. In short, the tailwinds are now headwinds. On the government side, unions are far less powerful today, there are no price and wage controls, and tax rates are low. It seems next to impossible to make the case that supply-side policies can have anywhere near the effect today that they had in the 80s." Trond out. Pool, here I come.