Recommended read: Dopesick from Beth Macy. For a non-American, it reads like a horror script.
Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims
121–130 of 196 posts
Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don't know that he got touched. We have a press story with some unlikely events that strongly suggests he got touched. There's a between-the-wars novel by English author Evelyn Waugh called Decline and Fall. The main character gets involved in all kinds of unspeakable crimes, more out of naivety than inherent criminality, and at the end is "disappeared" out of jail and given a new identity. Waugh was an Establishm…
Epstein’s brother identified the body.
Give genetic samples to the public.
Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims
#123Are any of the Sackler family going to face real consequences for this?
Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims
#124They are jews so I doubt it.
Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you suggest instead? The possibility to bankrupt a company without losing more than you put into the venture is in my eyes a feature of capitalism, not a bug.
i suggest that, when a PtLd or publicly traded company gets under criminal investigation, that all trade in shares gets suspended. when a fine/settlement is determined the trade is resumed but the fine is --for the part that cannot be paid in cash-- paid in equity while considering an adjusted valuation (post fine) of the company. This means the shareholders dilute to pay the fine/settlement. 1) the fine needs to be…
The company is going bankrupt, so the effective "fine" to the shareholders is 100% of their equity. That's the point - "limited liability" just means it can't be more than 100% of equity.
Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you suggest instead? The possibility to bankrupt a company without losing more than you put into the venture is in my eyes a feature of capitalism, not a bug.
It's a feature when it's good faith efforts. It's very clearly a bug when it's used to evade no end of abuse, illegality and fraud, or to avoid paying the pollution cleanup. There probably needs to be some exceptional way in law to pierce the shell of limited liability and go after officers, perhaps even claw back from investors and shareholders.
Limited liability only protects the capital of the shareholders, it doesn't protect the management of the company against criminal prosecution.
(In practice, however, managers are only rarely put in jail, both because it's notoriously difficult to prove white-collar crime (except in few cases, like insider trading, which are the pursued with extra vigor), and because CEOs are generally rich and well connected... but the problem there is corruption, not some inherent feature/bug of the idea of limited liability company.)
Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
i suggest that, when a PtLd or publicly traded company gets under criminal investigation, that all trade in shares gets suspended. when a fine/settlement is determined the trade is resumed but the fine is --for the part that cannot be paid in cash-- paid in equity while considering an adjusted valuation (post fine) of the company. This means the shareholders dilute to pay the fine/settlement. 1) the fine needs to be…
The company is going bankrupt, so the effective "fine" to the shareholders is 100% of their equity. That's the point - "limited liability" just means it can't be more than 100% of equity.
Good point. I should have added:
4) When the fine is larger than the company's worth, collect it from the shareholders.
Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please remember that Purdue were the ones who marketed Oxycontin on the premise of one dose for 12-hour pain relief. When they learned doctors were prescribing it for eight hours, they tried to "re-train" them to use the "proper" (read: their ) dosing recommendation, because there were cheaper drugs with six of eight hour doses. Sure, the doctors made the prescriptions, but you, and I, and everyone who thinks honestl…
Actually, this makes me think we should be going after doctors too.
We should be. We should also be going after the distributors who were shipping millions of pills a year to small towns with a population of 6000. This is not an either/or situation, there is plenty of blame to go around.
Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most opiod deaths are from fentanyl. Most fentanyl comes from China, not perscription medication.
75% of opioid/opiate addicts started with pills. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24871348
And if they had continued access to those pills they wouldn't be hitting the black market, getting fentanyl, and dying. Eventually, with support and help, they could start to wean off directly or with methadone or suboxone. But no, we can't have that. Instead our government and society prefers to let people die and then pretends like dismantling one company and taking their money is going to help. It's not going to help a single addict.