Per DJT. That’ll show those elitist diabetes/weight-loss drug consumers! Some back of envelope calculations for Wegovy and Ozempic (both manufactured by Novo Nordisk).
Current list price, implied given US is small country (as in behavior of steel tariffs):
$1,349.02 per package (Wegovy) 28 days ==> $2698.04
$936 30 day supply (Ozempic) ==> $1872.60
Competing product, from Eli Lilly:
$1086.37 per fill (30 days) (Zepbound) ==> above $1872.60 (assuming substitutable for Ozempic)
If one has to google the word “tariff” to find out what it means, you might be surprised to find out the domestically produced alternative has a price increase. But that’s the point of tariffs — to increase producer surplus for domestic producers (see block a in the graphs in this post).
Addendum, 4:21pm PT:
Why stop at 100%. Why not 1000%. The bigger it is, the bigger the increase in consumer surplus, right?
Speaking of bad picy ideas, Thorsten Slok raises the possibility of a “Liz Truss” moment in the U.S. Treasury market:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-07/apollo-s-slok-says-rising-treasury-yields-risk-a-truss-moment?utm_medium=social&utm_content=business&utm_source=threads&utm_campaign=socialflow
Truss triggered a scary sell-off in UK debt with irresponsible fiscal policy. Margin calls served to amplify the selling. Slok’s choice of description implies that Trump’s fiscal policy intentions are irresponsible.
Also, perhaps, that market conditions are such as could amplify selling. Maybe so, and not necessarily just in the fixed income market. Slok mentions high P/E ratios in equities. He’s not alone. For example:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4747341-sp500-valuation-flashing-major-warning-signs
Couple that with extreme bullishness and stock prices could prove fragile:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-doing-something-done-103500626.html
Krugman has recently joined Slok in observing that the rise in long-end Treasuries yields in response to Fed rate cuts is abnormal, suggesting an “insanity premium” is creeping into Treasury pricing. “Insanity”, in this context, means Trump actually doing what he says he’ll do:
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-there-an-insanity-premium-on-interest
Delong, never eager to contradict Krugman, does so this time:
https://braddelong.substack.com/p/the-macro-finance-sitch-the-streams
Sadly, Delong thinks we should pay for his wisdom, so hides most of his thinking behind a paywall.
One thing mere mortals know, however, is that all three are looking at the same data. They may think more clearly than mere mortals, but the data don’t lead to agreement, and we’re all looking at the same data. One if them has a Nobel, one of the lives and breaths fixed income and one if them worked at Treasury. Take your pick.
Trump watchers say Trump regards stock market fluctuations as a referendum on his policies. If so, maybe he’ll be convinced to rethink his Truss-level economic ideas.
Today we find out that Donald Trump just happened to phone up Justice Alito a day before he filed an emergency appeal to delay his sentencing Friday for his felony convictions. Alito claims they didn’t discuss the case but instead they discussed the qualifications of one of his law clerks regarding one of the 4,000 minor appointments in the administration. Yeah, because Trump is well known for his diligence in personally vetting appointees, no matter how minor, by calling up their former employers for references.
Of course they didn’t discuss Trump’s legal case. “Nice little law clerk you got there, Sam. Would be a real shame if his new job opportunity went up in flames.”
This is how mobsters work.
Oh, there’s more. It turns out the law clerk is Will Levy, grandson of Ford’s Attorney General Edward Levy. Will Levy worked for Bill Barr and sat in on some of the contentious meetings in the Oval Office in December 2020 when they were arguing over events leading up to the insurrection.
So Trump already knew Levy. Trump didn’t need a reference from Alito — he needed a favor.
Alito is just flat out lying about the pretext for the phone call. The corruption of this Supreme Court is unbelievable and that will be John Roberts legacy as he condoned it.