The dollar signs put the post into mathematics-mode, but even then not always because it tries to be smart about when to do that and when not, not always successfully.
Put a back-slash in front of your dollar signs and it won’t do that.
From the link:
Copper can be viewed as an entry-level metal for casual investors. “Poor man’s silver” is much cheaper than the white metal,
It can be viewed as an entry-level metal for casual investors, because no serious investors would go any where near these things.
And presumably its called “poor man’s silver” because anyone who thinks buying one of these things is a good investment will end up a poor man.
[Emphasis mine]
Trump said: “We need a president that’s respected. I have never realized how important, frankly – and it is a horrible thing to say – how important a president, the head of this country is. I thought it would maybe run through bureaucracy, it doesn’t.
Former President Donald Trump once again spoke from both sides of his mouth on Wednesday in an attempt to sow doubt about COVID-19 vaccinations ― oh, and spread some lies.
The former president appeared on Fox Business and said he was “proud” to have taken the COVID vaccine, while falsely claiming that when he left office, the coronavirus “was virtually gone.”
He threw in some xenophobia as well, using the racist term “China virus” to describe the pathogen.
Trump dismissed the recommendations by the Biden White House that Americans get booster shots eight months after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, in order to combat the delta variant of the virus.
“That sounds to me like a money-making operation for Pfizer,” Trump said. “Think of the money involved. A booster shot, that’s tens of billions of dollars. How good of business is that? If you’re a businessman, you say, ‘You know what? Let’s give them another shot.’ That’s another $10 billion of money coming in. The whole thing is just crazy.”
The president also once again showed that he doesn’t really understand the concept of evolving guidance based on new information.
…
My bold.
That last sentence went off the rails by including the words “understand” and “concept” in any statement about the Orange Doofus.
He’s not wrong - it is a money-making proposition for Pfizer / Moderna. However, is the recommendation due to political pressure to increase vaccinations, or is it due to increased infection / hospitalization / death rates? Let’s see. One administration pressured the CDC to change recommendations; removed reporting information from them; politicized the agency. The next administration returned the reporting and freed and followed recommendations from experts in the field. I’m pretty sure that the booster recommendation is due to monitoring and testing results, not political pressure. All the CFSG is doing is playing to his base and feeding the Qonsperacy theories.
It’s no surprise that he expected to skate by without doing any real work. After all, that’s how he runs his businesses.
(I remember a comment someone once made about Dubya - “When he said he was going to run this country like a business, I didn’t think he meant one of his!”)
Who, AIUI, are charging somewhere in the $15-$25 range per dose of the vaccine. It does not seem at all unreasonable to me to be willing to pay a grand total of something like 50 to 75 dollars for a vaccine that offers very high levels of protection, for months if not years at a time, from an ongoing deadly pandemic. (And that’s not even taking into account the fact that the shots are mostly free to the customer because they’re being paid for by governments.)
I’m as willing as the next person to rail against Big Pharma price gouging, but ISTM that this is a situation where drug companies are charging a reasonable price for an important medicine that’s well worth the cost. So I’m perfectly happy about Pfizer and Moderna making themselves a buttload of money on those sales.
The only reason Trump’s complaining about it, as you note, is that he knows his base is always willing to get mad at drug companies, with reason or without, and he can harvest more donations by riling up his base.
Plus, he probably thinks he deserves a cut.
I think he does. Without him, the drug companies wouldn’t have nearly so many customers for a 3rd dose.
I’ve quoted your post, and there is some weird word repetition going on. Equals cursive italics?
quote:
Price of scrap copper is 4.28, meaning 4.28,meaning4.28, meaning .2675 of copper goes into every $1.59 coin. Assume SG&A is equal to COGS (just because) and we have a nice $1.05 profit per.
end the quote
There’s something missing in there. $4.28 / lb = $0.2675 / oz. One ounce of copper in every $1.59 coin. Assuming that the cost of labor = cost of goods, total cost to make the coin is $0.54, meaning $1.05 profit on each coin.
Although, without his noble efforts, they might have close to half a million more customers.
But how many of those would actually be customers, especially short term? A guaranteed dollar today is worth more then a maybe dollar sometime in the future, you know. Particularly if that future dollar might go to a competitor.
It’s a fuckton of people, but a $1 profit on 200 million people takes a long time to recoup from 500k not-dead folks.
In the wake of the Jan 6 investigation committee issuing a call for documents, Trump issued a statement:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/25/politics/january-6-house-documents-investigation/index.html
I wonder who really wrote that?
Who now (rightfully) possesses the requested documents? Are these docs in the care of the current executive branch or does the Trump Shadow Government have them?
The Leftist ‘select committee’ has further exposed itself as a partisan sham! This exercise is a travesty! It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham! I move for a mistrial!
I’m getting shades of Otto’s defense in Animal House.
Otter, not Otto.
Grumble. Grumble. Stupid no proofreading