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I have to admit, I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon with a full-on case of the blahs. It’s Selection Sunday, but that’s sort of anti-climatic this year since TBS is apparently just going to announce all the teams right at 6:00 p.m. It’s the Sunday after springing ahead (more on that below) so I’m all kinds of messed up. And apparently the 3rd storm in less than three weeks is headed my way, so I probably should be preparing to lose power yet again instead of watching an SVU marathon. So given all of that, let’s get to it, shall we?
Martin Shkreli
This will be the last time I write about Mr. Shkreli, who had made frequent appearances in this column over the last few years. And that’s because he’s going away for quite a long time.
After the so-called “pharma bro” was ordered earlier this week to forfeit about $7.4 million in assets, including a one-of-a-kind Wu Tang Clan album, another album (“Tha Carter V” by Lil Wayne), and a Picasso, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for securities fraud and conspiracy.
But before you feel too bad for this scumbag, note that his net worth is still about $20 million, even after subtracting the forfeiture, the 75,000 fine that was also imposed at his sentencing, taxes and legal fees he owes. Guess ripping off HIV patients pays off. [via CNBC]
Ed Cooley
Providence College lost to Villanova in the Big East championship on Saturday, but Friars coach Ed Cooley is the one who really put on a show.
According to CBSSports, Cooley said, “When I sat down I felt the great breeze in the crack.” There wasn’t enough time during the game for Cooley to step out for a quick change in the overtime thriller, so Cooley stayed courtside and made do with some Gatorade towels to make sure his behind stayed covered.
Providence Coach Ed Cooley is so into the Big East title game that he ripped his pants. pic.twitter.com/EX0oKmWhYL
— Tom Jolly (@TomJolly) March 11, 2018
Pants splitting and losing aside, Cooley’s weekend still wasn’t that bad: with wins on Thursday and Friday over Creighton and Xavier, Providence made the tournament. [via CBSSports]
Millennials
The headline says it all: “66% of Millennials have nothing saved for retirement.”
Of course, that makes sense when you think about all of the other expenses facing millennials. According to Douglas Boneparth, a certified financial planner and author of The Millennial Money Fix,”I see in practice that a lot of us are putting retirement down the goal priority list, in favor of paying off student debt or buying homes.”
Fair, but it also means that millennials will have to work longer to have enough to retire. And given that most of us would like to have a tomorrow, it may be time to take your company up on that 401k match. [via CNNMoney]
Londoners
London is one of my favorite cities in the world, but I can’t say that I’d want to wonder around it in the dark. I don’t mean at night – I mean, in the pitch black – which parts of the city were plunged into on Sunday after an unexplained blackout.
The city’s West End, which contains its theater, Soho, and Chinatown areas, was effected by an issue with underground tables. Those who were at shows and restaurants sat in darkness waiting for the lights to come back on before they gave up and went to head home…only to find out that the trains were not running. Londoners took to Twitter to express their frustration:
Power cut in Soho and Chinatown and feels like I’ve walked into the apocalypse pic.twitter.com/ZdXEDa8dax
— Pádraig Prendergast (@prendergast) March 11, 2018
Chinatown London blackout. Reason unknown #gerrardstreet pic.twitter.com/un3Qh1MvfS
— Jason Ashby (@Jashalee) March 11, 2018
Good times in the dark at #cursedchild while there’s a power cut in Soho… and the trains are all cancelled. London, you’re a mess pic.twitter.com/SE0bb8axs4
— Liz Martin-Silverstone (@gimpasaura) March 11, 2018
[via The Evening Standard]
All of Us
There are a lot of rough days during the year: the Monday after the Superbowl; New Year’s Day; the sixth of May and the eighteenth of March. But honestly, the day that probably screws me up the most during the year is the Spring Ahead Daylight Savings Time Day. I don’t know what it is, but losing one extra hour of sleep screws me up for weeks. It’s like a never-ending hangover without the fun of excess drinking. And from looking at Twitter, I’m not the only one riding this struggle bus today:
….And the Monday after Daylight Savings Time starts. ☕️😑 pic.twitter.com/b1OyfXvBpM
— Kelly…Just Kelly❤⚾ (@TXBluebonnet66) March 13, 2017
Waking up on daylight savings day to clocks that read different times pic.twitter.com/Jag8yfkdIc
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) March 12, 2017
Having kids basically feels like waking up on the first morning of daylight savings time every day for 18 years.
— Simon Holland (@simoncholland) March 13, 2017
my Daylight Saving Time aesthetic pic.twitter.com/waky3VTmaj
— Peter Marshall (@PeterJMarshall) March 11, 2018
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Image via JStone / Shutterstock.com
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Jenna Crowley
Jenna used to be known as 2NOTBrokeGirls, but then one of the girls actually went broke, so she's struck out on her own. Jenna spends her free time saving the world, one sorority girl at a time (usually while wearing yoga pants), questioning why she decided to get a doctorate, documenting her love of all things cheese related, and hosting the new PGP podcast Don't Take It From Us. You can ask her anything you want about football, using your boobs to get what you want, and pizza at @JennaLCrowley on Twitter or via email at JennaLCrowley@gmail.com.
@JennaLCrowley
@donttakeitfromus
I can never understand how losing one hour of sleep supposedly affects people that much. It’s one hour. On a Sunday…
Just sleep an hour later. Duh.
I wish, with such a insane amount of news outlets on the internet reporting click-baity or misinformed news, people would read more than just headlines.
But I will try and explain the Shkreli situation. He is a scapegoat for the media, and he knows it and embraces it, because that whole scandal showed a massive flaw in the pharmaceutical industries, and yet the media demonized him. He did nothing wrong. The price for the drug, Daraprim, is and was always the same for the people who need it and that will not change, as the price for patients has a limit, according to government guidelines. He changed the drug price for the insurance companies, because as he said, why not, this drug is almost 50 years old, barely doing nothing at this point and is prescribed for a illness that is really rare, and that’s why he hiked the price for the companies, for R&D for a new, even better drug. Pharma don’t see the reason to waste a large amount of money to R&D a drug for a really small pool of patients, as in the end the company is losing money. And yet, insurance companies, mad about losing money, blame Shkreli that he made them pay the insanely high price of the drug for the patients. It’s kinda sad how easily manipulative media can become, and him probably being on the spectrum struggled a lot to change public opinion once the wolves came out.
In fact, he said that, any individual that can’t afford it then his company will comp it. So he and his company is operating at a loss, and he still keep’s doing it for these patients.
Make your own conclusions. I may have missed a few points here and there, but from downright hating him until making my own research and conclusion, I learned to respect him a bit.
Just to be entirely clear, while yes, he is known for his recent dealings in pharmaceuticals, his conviction has absolutely nothing to do with that. He was convicted of defrauding investors in a hedge fund. Until we actually focus on his actual crime, it’s like saying Charles Manson is a bad guy because he littered.
Oh I know that. sorry I should’ve clarified. But the fact that he’s called ‘pharma bro’ almost universally means most people still believe he’s a scumbag who ripped off HIV patients and justice is finally being served. His actual crime that has him going to jail for is that he stole from the wrong people – the rich and powerful. Obviously not a victim-less crime, but the way it’s been portrayed is harsh and unfair.
True, but he’s still a douche.
Oh god yeah, looks like the slimiest mofo I’ve ever come across.
Correct. Him raising the price of the medication should have little to no effect on the consumer, only the insurance companies that have somehow managed to get every single news outlet on their side. Also correct, he’s still a huge asshole and defrauded investors as deserves to go to prison and also get punched really hard in the face.
Do you really think Martin Shkreli had a bad weekend because he got what he deserved?!
You call it losing one hour of sleep. I call it time for brunch drinks the second you wake up.
Unless you want to die at your desk, please put something away for retirement. If your company has a matching program, at least take the free money your company will give you. If you cant afford free money,
I know Coach Cooley from his time at Fairfield University, and I can tell you this is not the first time he’s ripped his clothes by getting to into coaching a game.
This is gonna get some serious hate, but what part of raising the price of his company’s drug was unconscionable? His actual crimes notwithstanding, why the outrage from the public? Seems like some justice warrior opportunity to misplace anger about his generally douche persona.
The drug he raised the price on is pyrimethamine, which is the main treatment for toxoplasmosis. A disease not just hiv patients get but anyone with a weakened immune, so cancer patients, etc. you need to be treated for months. He raised it from 13 dollars a pill to 750 dollars. So to treat a patient it was close to 80k. Most of these patients have shitty insurance, so they had trouble being covered. Made life as an infectious disease practioner hell and even worse for the patients. I’m sure quite a few people died as the result of this
In multiple interviews he made it known that if you couldn’t afford it or did it have insurance that would cover, they provided it for free. He’s not the only person to drastically increase the price of a drug. Valeant did this with dozens of drugs all while decreasing the R&D, so essentially they were buying known meds and just increasing the price. No one went to jail.
I’m trying not to sound callous, but nothing in your comment explains the hate except people being irrational. This falls into the greater debate about our healthcare system, but this is just Zucotti Park for healthcare. He bought something and then adjusted the price… what is the problem there?
I don’t think he actually did anything wrong or illegal in raising the price of the drug, but I can still think he’s a shitty person for doing so to the degree that he did. He also just looks kinda slimy and greasy, so that doesn’t help
You say you don’t think he did anything wrong but then said he is a shitty person for the degree… What amount would be an appropriate level to raise the price? Because either is was a bad thing to do for any price ($1.00) or it wasn’t.
I disagree with that conclusion. I remember reading that the price had to increase some to account for changes in manufacturing or something (I don’t remember exactly what). I don’t know the pharmaceutical market at all, so I can’t say what an appropriate line is, but somehow I get the feeling that it’s well before a nearly 60x spike.
With that rationale, there should be limits to what any product can make in profit margin. Again, you are talking about scale. Is a 10% return acceptable, but 15% is not? Where do you draw the line on what constitutes acceptable profit and not? And if you own an IPhone, you have already made my case.
I don’t think there should be legal limits at all. What he did was absolutely within his rights as a business owner. If I was in his position, there’s a good chance I do the same thing, albeit probably on a smaller scale. All I’m saying is that he made one of billions of immoral business decisions that are made every day around the world in the name of profit. The dislike for him in particular is a combination of the group affected by his decision, the magnitude to which that group is affected, and his overall douchey demeanor
What immoral decision did he make? Again, you are back to accusing him of doing something wrong but with limits. It was either wrong, or not.
Spoiler: he’s going to jail for lying to investors and conspiracy charges. You’re correct that raising the price of a drug is not illegal. You can screw the poor/sick, but you can’t screw the rich investors.
The same people that decry this guy for raising prices are the same people who want the “rich” to pay their “fair share” but fail to actually qualify who the “rich” are or what their “fair share” actually means in terms of dollars.
These are #FeelTheBern idiots who thought he would pay for their student loans after realizing art history didn’t turn into a job at Goldman.
Headlines demeaning him by calling him a “Finance Bro” are so funny.
#PardonMartin