I KNOW

I’m always recommending reading and you’ve got far better things to do, but, if you have a few minutes, have a look at a truly splendid piece in the current issue of Reason magazine on the prescription drug industry. Better than anything I’ve yet read, it’s a devastating rebuttal of most of the attacks on Big Pharma these last few years. Compared to John Le Carre’s sub-literate screed in the current Nation, it’s a cornucopia of lucid information and analysis. It also destroys the American Prospect’s embarrassingly dumb recent attack on the drug industry, “The Price Isn’t Right.” My favorite points: the Columbia economist Frank Lichtenberg’s studies of how pharmaceutical innovation has cost our society far less than it has saved in increased longevity, leisure, health and reductions in hospitalization. To my mind, this issue is now the front-line of our new ideological divide. Who wins matters – not least for the health, happiness and productivity of the next generation of Americans.

ARSENIC AGAIN: Interesting letter from Christie Todd Whitman in the Washington Post today. She points out that the last-minute Clinton regulations on reducing arsenic levels in water weren’t due to be in place till 2006. This means either a) the Bushies have exaggerated the economic cost in getting to this level or b) there’s no harm in having a second look before we enforce them. Either way, it’s a little hard to interpret this as W deliberately poisoning our drinking water at the behest of corporate America.