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| Happy Tuesday, Insiders! Today's newsletter covers: - ⚕️ The U.S. government announced the first 10 drugs that will be subject to Medicare price negotiations
- 🐱💻 Meta shut down nearly 9,000 social media accounts linked to a Chinese influence campaign
- 🏠 Germany could cap house rents in some cities for three years
Plus: 🎂 Today is my 30th birthday! Feel free to reply to this email with any thoughts on how to best approach this next decade of life. I will highlight the most inspiring suggestions in tomorrow's newsletter. If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Your faithful IDB writer, Daniel
p/Dan-Smith | |
| 1 | | The federal government announced the 10 prescription drugs that will be subject to the first-ever Medicare price negotiations. The Inflation Reduction Act that was passed by the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats last year gave the Medicare program the ability to negotiate drug prices for the first time. More: - Drugmakers have until October 1 to say if they will participate in the negotiations.
- If they decline to participate or to accept the prices agreed in the talks, they will be given the option of paying a windfall tax or pulling all of their drugs from Medicare and Medicaid coverage.
- The list includes:
- Xarelto, a blood thinner from Johnson & Johnson
- Januvia, a diabetes drug from Merck
- Jardiance, another diabetes drug from Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim
- Entresto, a cardiovascular drug from Novartis
- A blood thinner, a blood cancer drug, a psoriasis drug, and others are also on the list.
- JPMorgan Chase estimates that Medicare spent $50.5B on the 10 drugs last year.
Zoom Out: - More drugs will be subject to negotiations next year.
- Medicare will start negotiations over hospital-administered drugs in 2028.
Q: Do you think that Medicare price negotiations will hurt the stock of the companies that sell these drugs? Join the debate here. |     | |
| 2 | | Best Buy stock is up over 5.5% after the company beat sales expectations in its second-quarter earnings report. 
What the numbers say: Best Buy generated $9.58B in revenue in the quarter, slightly above the $9.52B expected by analysts. Online sales were down 7.1% from Q2 2022 to Q2 2023. The technology retailer expects $46.3B in revenue this year, down from the record $51.8B it generated in 2022. Relevance: Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said he believes 2023 will be a "low point in tech demand" but that "the consumer electronic industry should see stabilization and possibly growth driven by the natural upgrade and replacement cycles and the normalization of tech innovation." | | | |
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| 3 | | Meta has removed nearly 9,000 Facebook accounts, pages, and groups linked to a Chinese influence operation. Meta's security team said that this was the biggest crackdown it has ever taken against a single network. More: - According to Meta, the campaign was started by Chinese law enforcement in 2019 with the goal of promoting the country's interests and damaging the U.S.
- The campaign initially focused on discrediting 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and later targeted the COVID-19 pandemic by pushing back against claims that the virus originated in China.
- Individuals involved in the campaign later shared videos that highlighted racial inequality in the U.S., some of which went viral.
- Posts from the campaign, which Meta researchers called "Spamoflague," were translated into different languages and shared on websites like Quora and Blogspot.
Zoom Out: - The New York Times reported that many of the accounts that Meta removed are still active on X, Reddit, and TikTok.
- Meta said that Chinese law enforcement appeared to have learned from and mimicked Russian-style influence campaigns.
- Meta has removed seven China-based influence operations from its platform over the past six years.
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| 4 | | GOOD NEWS: Eight U.S. states will offer free school breakfasts and lunches to all students starting this year. Lawmakers in other states are considering legislation to provide students with free meals. More: - Minnesota, New Mexico, Colorado, Vermont, Michigan, and Massachusetts will join California and Maine in offering free school meals this academic year.
- Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Illinois have expanded their free school meals programs this year.
- In May, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) reintroduced a bill to fund free school meals across the U.S.
- Emily Honer, director of nutrition programs for the Minnesota Department of Education, said that "students learn better when they are well nourished."
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| 5 | | The biggest party in Germany's coalition government plans to propose a three-year rent cap to tackle a major housing shortage. The proposal by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) would allow landlords to raise rents by up to 6% in cities with high demand but it would ban increases in the rest of the country. More: - Rents have risen at a record pace in Germany this year, while consumer prices increased by 6.2% in the 12 months to July, a higher inflation rate than in the Eurozone at large.
- The current regulation allows landlords to raise rates by up to 20% over a three-year period, a limit that the German government wants to lower to 11% ― but the SPD wants to go further.
- The SPD proposal includes tougher punishments for landlords who circumvent rules and charge illegally high rents.
- A member of the Free Democratic Party, which is part of the SPD-led coalition government, argued that the housing crisis is primarily caused by limited supply and that more attention should be paid to building more homes.
Zoom Out: - Nearly 60% of Germany's 41 million households live in rented accommodation.
- A study published earlier this month found that Germany has a shortage of 700,000 apartments.
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| 6 | | The Japanese government said it could be reaching the end of a 25-year struggle with deflation, as consumer prices and wages begin to show healthy increases. A government report on the country's macroeconomic challenges said that the current situation could offer "a window of opportunity ... to exit deflation." More: - Japan's wage growth has been stagnant in recent decades, while the country has posted the lowest inflation rate of all developed economies over the past two years.
- Japan's core inflation reached a 40-year peak of 4.2% in January and stayed above the target level of 2% for 16 straight months in July.
- A survey of over 5,000 Japanese unions found that average pay rose by 3.58% this year - the highest level seen since 1993.
- Average wages in Japan are roughly 75% of the OECD average of ~$51,000.
Zoom Out: - The Japanese government first officially announced that it was in a state of deflation in 2001, leading to years of loose monetary policies from the country's central bank.
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- A lawsuit filed by Republican Congressional fundraising organizations against the Federal Election Committee last year could lead to the biggest change to U.S. campaign finance law since Citizens United in 2010.
- The Professional Women's Hockey League was officially launched on Tuesday. The league will have six inaugural franchises and the first season will begin in January 2024.
- Rapper Eminem demanded that GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy stop using his music during campaign events. A video of Ramaswamy singing Eminem's song "Lose Yourself" at an Iowa campaign event went viral earlier this month.
- Hurricane Idalia is set to hit Florida's Gulf Coast this week, leading to mandatory evacuation orders in 14 counties.
- Toptal's world-class talent lets you future-proof your business with their experts in blockchain, AI and software development.
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Term of the Day White-collar crime: A white-collar crime is committed by someone of a higher social or economic status in the course of their occupation, motivated by financial gain. Question of the Week Do you share details about your salary with your coworkers? Join the conversation |
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 | Writer | | Dr. Daniel Smith is an Inside writer with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. Follow him on Twitter @DJS12321 or email him at Daniel@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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