July 10 2024
Black Democrats; office apocalypse; PBMs; 3D printed homes; Iranian missiles
1 ELECTION 2024 Elected Black Democrats rally around Biden
2 Office vacancy rate at all-time high
3 Regulator releases report on Pharmacy Benefit Managers
4 Fascinating startup 3D prints homes
5 BATTLE FOR EURASIA Iran expands missile production for Russia, Houthis
7/10/1962 Patent issued for three-point seatbelt
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1 ELECTION 2024 Elected Black Democrats rally around Biden
As President Biden watches his support among some key Democrats in Congress quietly crumble, one group has emerged as a vocal base of support on Capitol Hill: Black lawmakers, particularly older ones. While most elected Democrats have avoided publicly weighing in on Mr. Biden’s fate and many have privately expressed skepticism that he can remain the party’s candidate after a disastrous debate performance, the leader and senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus have filled the void with full-throated expressions of support. It is reminiscent of how Black Democrats rallied behind Mr. Biden to help propel him to his primary victory in 2020. It also speaks to a broader racial and generational divide in the party that could be consequential in determining how it moves forward from the president’s current crisis. More than a dozen Black Democrats in both the House and Senate have begun to offer a strong defense of him, even as their colleagues whisper in increasingly urgent tones about pushing him aside.
Article Source: NYT
2 Office vacancy rate at all-time high
Talk of the office and its pandemic-powered apocalypse might have died down, but the sector’s troubles haven’t. If anything, four years after the pandemic’s onset, office vacancies are growing. In the second quarter of this year, “the office sector set a record vacancy rate at 20.1%, breaking the 20% barrier for the first time in history,” a Moody’s analysis published last week read. “The slow bleed occurring in the office sector has led to a steady rise in the vacancy rate as permanent shifts in working behavior have outlasted the initial wave of the pandemic four years ago.”
Article Source: Fortune
3 Regulator releases report on Pharmacy Benefit Managers
Drug middlemen, known as pharmacy-benefit managers, have accomplished something rare in Washington: Their business practices have led to a bipartisan consensus of sorts around the need for more regulation. Yet successfully cracking down on the tactics that drive health costs higher won’t be easy. That is because PBMs operate in a highly complex and opaque world where key information is kept from the public. The reaction on Wall Street to a highly anticipated Federal Trade Commission investigation into the largest PBMs spoke volumes. When the FTC launched its investigation two years ago, investors grew concerned that the report’s conclusions could help spur antitrust action against the three largest companies—UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx, Cigna’s Express Scripts and CVS Health’s Caremark. (All three are integrated within large healthcare insurance conglomerates and they collectively manage roughly 80% of U.S. prescriptions). But when the 73-page interim report dropped on Tuesday, shares of CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group and Cigna actually finished higher for the day. To be fair, the political backdrop might already be somewhat priced into the stocks. But the lack of further pressure on Tuesday attests to the fact that investors were somewhat relieved. While the report highlighted several ways in which the highly consolidated PBM industry contributes to higher healthcare costs, it didn’t exactly deliver a smoking gun or call for immediate antitrust action. “The FTC’s interim findings fall short of any charges against the PBMs or empirical findings on the relationship between increased consolidation in the PBM industry and higher drug prices,” wrote Lisa Gill, an analyst at JPMorgan.
Article Source: WSJ
4 Fascinating startup 3D prints homes
Article Source: CBS
5 BATTLE FOR EURASIA Iran expands missile production for Russia, Houthis
Recent satellite imagery shows major expansions at two key Iranian ballistic missile facilities that two American researchers assessed are for boosting missile production, a conclusion confirmed by three senior Iranian officials. The enlargement of the sites follows an October 2022 deal in which Iran agreed to provide missiles to Russia, which has been seeking them for its war against Ukraine. Tehran also supplies missiles to Yemen's Houthi rebels and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, both members of the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance against Israel, according to U.S. officials. Images taken by commercial satellite firm Planet Labs of the Modarres military base in March and the Khojir missile production complex in April show more than 30 new buildings at the two sites, both of which are located near Tehran. The images, reviewed by Reuters, show many of the structures are surrounded by large dirt berms. Such earthworks are associated with missile production and are designed to stop a blast in one building from detonating highly combustible materials in nearby structures, said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
Article Source: Reuters
7/10/1962 Patent issued for three-point seatbelt
Sources
1. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/09/us/trump-biden-election/black-democrats-biden?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
2. https://fortune.com/2024/07/02/office-vacancies-all-time-high-moodys/
3. https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/how-drug-middlemen-keep-beating-the-system-671a638b
4. https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/t05ZpbLlydacSBHR5d_WCNRCncvggSVK/
5. Exclusive:%20Satellite%20photos%20show%20Iran%20expanding%20missile%20production%20-%20https%3A//www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/satellite-photos-show-iran-expanding-missile-production-sources-say-2024-07-08/
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