Random Business News

[semipotentwalrus]

I'm a little bemused at the people I've seen online that think it's "bullying" to strike as if workers owe anyone their labour if they're not happy with their conditions. "They're holding the rest of the US hostage for their own gains!" as if the fact that a fucking 62% raise over the coming years doesn't mean that the rest of the US has been underpaying them like mad and getting away with it.

I'm not enthusiastic about the demands of "no automatization" of anything, that's just neo-Luddism to me, but clearly the absurd increases in productivity of the last decades have disproportionately gone to capital, not labour.

[mdgv2]

Weird that Capitalism Am Grate until it’s a question of “what do you mean the workers don’t much like being ripped off”

[Peregrine]

Oct 4, 2024 14:40:21 GMT -5 semipotentwalrus said:

I'm a little bemused at the people I've seen online that think it's "bullying" to strike as if workers owe anyone their labour if they're not happy with their conditions. "They're holding the rest of the US hostage for their own gains!" as if the fact that a fucking 62% raise over the coming years doesn't mean that the rest of the US has been underpaying them like mad and getting away with it.

I'm not enthusiastic about the demands of "no automatization" of anything, that's just neo-Luddism to me, but clearly the absurd increases in productivity of the last decades have disproportionately gone to capital, not labour.

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires" is a quote that explains so much about US culture and politics.

[easye]

www.npr.org/2024/10/09/nx-s1-5146006/justice-department-sanctions-google-search-engine-lawsuit

Justice Department calls for sanctions against Google in landmark antitrust case

The Department of Justice is proposing a series of sanctions against Google to ensure that it can no longer monopolize the search engine market. In a filing late Tuesday night, the government laid out its framework for reining in the tech giant.

Proposals include possibly putting an end to exclusive agreements Google has with companies like Apple and Samsung, and prohibiting certain kinds of data tracking. The government wrote that it’s considering “behavioral and structural” remedies that would ensure Google couldn’t use its Chrome browser or Android phone in a way that advantages its search engine, but didn’t outline what the structural remedies would be.

[easye]

www.npr.org/2024/10/11/g-s1-27671/td-bank-justice-department

TD Bank to pay $3 billion in money-laundering settlement with the Justice Department

WASHINGTON — TD Bank will pay approximately $3 billion in a historic settlement with U.S. authorities who said Thursday that the financial institution's lax practices allowed significant money laundering over multiple years.

Canada-based TD Bank pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, the largest bank in U.S. history to do so, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

“TD Bank created an environment that allowed financial crime to flourish," Garland said. “By making its services convenient for criminals, it became one.”

High-level executives were alerted to serious problems with the bank’s anti-money laundering program, but failed to correct them as employees openly joked about how easy it seemed to be for criminals to launder money there, Garland said.

What is this all aboot?

[dabbler]

Oct 11, 2024 9:39:53 GMT -5 easye said:

www.npr.org/2024/10/11/g-s1-27671/td-bank-justice-department

TD Bank to pay $3 billion in money-laundering settlement with the Justice Department

WASHINGTON — TD Bank will pay approximately $3 billion in a historic settlement with U.S. authorities who said Thursday that the financial institution's lax practices allowed significant money laundering over multiple years.

Canada-based TD Bank pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, the largest bank in U.S. history to do so, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

“TD Bank created an environment that allowed financial crime to flourish," Garland said. “By making its services convenient for criminals, it became one.”

High-level executives were alerted to serious problems with the bank’s anti-money laundering program, but failed to correct them as employees openly joked about how easy it seemed to be for criminals to launder money there, Garland said.

What is this all aboot?

People in power getting off because they settled

[easye]

www.npr.org/2024/10/15/nx-s1-5153532/walgreens-closing-1200-stores

Walgreens will close 1,200 stores, hoping for a turnaround

Walgreens plans to close 1,200 stores over the next three years, the pharmacy chain said on Tuesday. It's part of the company's plan for a turnaround, as it faces retail competition and lower prescription payouts.

Chief Executive Tim Wentworth said about a quarter of the company’s stores are unprofitable. Walgreens has been on a $1-billion cost-cutting spree. It's already been shutting some stores, shaking up leadership and renegotiating its deals with insurers.

Walgreens, which also owns the British drugstore chain Boots, reported a net loss of $3 billion in the latest quarter. This was actually better than expected, with sales growing 6%.

Walgreens isn't the only big pharmacy chain attempting a turnaround. Rite Aid last month emerged from bankruptcy; CVS has also closed stores and reportedly weighs a breakup to undo its mergers with the insurance company Aetna and with Caremark, a pharmacy benefit manager.

Pharmacy chains have over-expanded to thousands of locations over the years, signing long-term leases for pricey corner locations. But many shoppers have criticized the quality of the stores, complaining about understaffing and the inaccessibility of items that are locked up to prevent theft. Pharmacies, for their part, have complained about shrinking profits for filling prescriptions, citing dramatic declines in reimbursement rates.

Oh dear, must be all that theft they tried to blame it on a few years ago....... I guess the real theft was from the Insurance companies that started forcing people onto mail-order pharmacies that the Insurance company owned.

[adurot]

I don’t go to Walgreens because their prices are all higher than Hyvee/Walmart.

[skyth]

My wife is on Medicare. She has to go to Walgreens as it's the preferred pharmacy so other places have higher copays for her.

[bobtheinquisitor]

My local Walgreens has been great, except for one of the pharmacists who keeps ringing things up wrong so they don’t get covered and then I have to wait for the manager to fix it, sometimes days later.

[mdgv2]

The US Healthcare system baffles me.

I get migraine medication through BUPA, my work’s private healthcare provider. I still have to pay for the prescription, but it’s maybe a few quid. Certainly no more than the NHS prescription charge. And…I get what I’m given. None of this “Ask Your Doctor For Our Special Sugar Pills” stuff. And those ads blew my tiny mind on my New York trip.

I also miss the days when some hard right lunatic on this board would demonstrate they’ve not the foggiest notion of how insurance works.

[Haighus]

I detest brand names for medications, its so annoying. Hard enough to remember one name, let alone 3 or 4...

The only medications where brand names are important in UK healthcare practice are antiepileptics, insulin, and inhalers, because products are not interchangeable. Immunotherapy too to a lesser degree, but that's a limitation of antibodies.

[easye]

I think the most notable thing about this story, is that they tried to blame "crime" for their problems a few years back. In response, they locked a lot of stuff up into glass cases. Other major retailers followed their lead, and there was a flurry of "crime" headlines in the media, and some store closures in "high risk" areas.

Here we see the real problem was insurance payments for prescriptions. Why did they even go through the "crime" charade in the first place? Why not just call a spade a spade?

[Peregrine]

Oct 16, 2024 9:16:01 GMT -5 easye said:

Why did they even go through the "crime" charade in the first place?

Because "those {racial slur of your choice}s did it" deflects blame away from the ruling class temporarily and makes the line go up. The fact that it might not work forever is a problem for someone else to deal with later, the line must go up now!

[A Town Called Malus]

Oct 16, 2024 3:07:16 GMT -5 mdgv2 said:

The US Healthcare system baffles me.

I get migraine medication through BUPA, my work’s private healthcare provider. I still have to pay for the prescription, but it’s maybe a few quid. Certainly no more than the NHS prescription charge. And…I get what I’m given. None of this “Ask Your Doctor For Our Special Sugar Pills” stuff. And those ads blew my tiny mind on my New York trip.

I also miss the days when some hard right lunatic on this board would demonstrate they’ve not the foggiest notion of how insurance works.

Remember, the drug companies are also marketing direct at the doctors in the US, as well. So, when you release your new miracle non-addictive* and non-abusable** opiate painkiller called OxyContin to the market, you hit both the suppliers and the end-users with your fraudulent marketing. That way you have people asking for it, and people primed to offer it.

*Not actually non-addictive, Purdue lied about that.
** Not actually non-abusable, one of the executives who was claiming that was crushing up their own Oxy to snort up their noise to circumvent the intended slow release method of oral delivery.