Kevin writes in from Buffalo, N.Y., in response to my March 15 column, \u201cProhibitionists force pain patients to live in agony\u201d:<\/p>\n
Mr. Suprynowicz, Thank you for this article. As a chronic pain patient, I find it more and more difficult to get prescriptions for the medication I need to have a quality of life worth living.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe chronic pain patients do not expect to ever be pain free. We only want to be able to live life without being treated as second class, drug seeking addicts. A few people abuse the system but the chronic pain patient pays the horrible price.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are needlessly humiliated on a regular basis. I can\u2019t begin to tell you how frustrating it is to suffer incredible pain knowing that every pharmacy I pass has the medication behind their counter that can help me, yet I am denied access to that relief without having to go through humiliating and sometimes dangerous treatment by the medical community.\u201d<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
My Jan. 22 column, \u201cClimate scammers prepare to sacrifice some impoverished asthmatics,\u201d continues to draw mail.<\/p>\n
Pat L. writes in: \u201cI have asthma and use inhalers. When I first got my new \u2018environmentally friendly\u2019 inhaler, I didn\u2019t think it would necessarily be much different from the old ones. Wrong! They don\u2019t work worth a damn. I get absolutely NO relief when I use the new inhaler — no matter how much I prime it and even when it is brand new. I have had to resort to using my nebulizer, which is a pain in the neck, and obviously not portable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI e-mailed both my senators to complain about the new inhalers and didn\u2019t get any response at all. …<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not the only one, BTW. When I told my doctor that the new inhalers didn\u2019t work, she ruefully agreed and said she had heard that same complaint from several patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s one way of reducing man\u2019s impact on the planet, I guess — kill off all the people who suffer from respiratory ailments.\u201d<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
\u201cHello Vin,\u201d writes in Cassie from Michigan, a self-described fan of \u201cThe Black Arrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile not poor, so I can afford my inhalers, there is one thing you missed. The HFA propellant does not work as well as the CFCs! It\u2019s much harder to use. Consequently, asthmatics may use their \u2018rescue\u2019 inhaler more. The necessary drug is not well delivered. Because they have to use more, there are actually pharmacies reporting \u2018inhaler abuse\u2019 by patients and contacting their physicians!<\/p>\n
\u201cI know — I\u2019m asthmatic, and I work in an industry that tracks whether physicians follow the \u2018standard of care for asthmatics\u2019 (among many other things — look up NCQA and then who their sponsors are.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current standard of care is that an asthmatic should not have to use their rescue inhaler very often. Rather, they should be on non-generic, very expensive \u2018controller\u2019 inhalers. Guess who benefits? Even those people with Rx coverage have to pay a large co-pay for the controllers as none are generic. Hmm. They don\u2019t help that much, either. They are steroid based. Lovely side effects from those steroids!<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep up the excellent work. If only more people were aware.\u201d<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
Allan writes in from the Hudson Valley:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey pulled the main brand, Primatene Mist, off the shelves many months ago. It was an OTC medication that worked for millions of people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe manufacturers, we were told, had stopped manufacturing it. Probably true. But now I have to get a prescription so I can buy for $25 what I got for $12 months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are Primatene sellers on Ebay, but who knows how long their stocks will last? I bought two packages several months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of money waiting for the guy who arranges to manufacture a knockoff of Primatene Mist. China is probably not a signatory to that international agreement. Do it there, and sell to the same distributors who are selling hundreds of medications to Americans through Online pharmacies. Our hypocritical government has not been able to stop that practice. If you know of an investor who would back this project, I\u2019ll do the legwork and heavy lifting to set it up. … We would not be breaking any laws, since we would be selling to distributors. What they do with the product is not our concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
This column offers no legal or financial advice as to the advisability of such an undertaking.<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
Philip responded to my Feb. 8 column, \u201cEver tried to \u2018actively manage\u2019 a 401(k) account?\u201d, as follows:<\/p>\n
\u201cHi, I enjoyed your article in today\u2019s Las Vegas Review Journal. I also lost a third of my IRA in the recent market downturn. …<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyway, I do have a fund within the list of my IRA\u2019s available funds that I think would have protected me if I had had the foresight to transfer my assets to that fund in November 2007. That fund is Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund (VMMXX) which shows a one year increase of 2.55 percent, a three year increase of 4.20 percent and a five year increase of 3.99 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to let you know that I think, in my case, it would have been possible to protect yourself from this catastrophe. \u201cI would be interested in hearing any comments. …\u201d<\/p>\n
I replied: Hi, Philip —<\/p>\n
As ever, let\u2019s start with the important disclaimer that I\u2019m a total amateur, not authorized by any regulatory agency to offer advice on specific investments. That said, \u201cMoney Market\u201d funds — generally, investments in short-term paper issued by the federal government in Washington City — are widely advertised as being \u201cbetter than cash\u201d or (if newfound caution reigns) \u201cthe same as cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
And U.S. government paper is indeed \u201csafe,\u201d so long as the U.S. government can afford to continue paying its obligations. But paying them in what? If Washington sent you, as interest on your bonds, a paper towel, writing on the back, \u201cWe owe you one hundred dollars, payable someday,\u201d would the bank accept that in deposit? Would the clerk at Burger King give you a Whopper for it?<\/p>\n
Hilariously enough, the answer is: If one side is green, and the other side bears the picture of a dead president, yes they will — so far. But for how long?<\/p>\n
A 3.9 percent return over 5 years is better than a negative rate of return. But a 3.9 percent return over 5 years isn\u2019t even keeping you up with the \u201cofficial, government-reported\u201d rate of inflation. And the Fed and Treasury have been creating \u201cnew money\u201d in recent years at a rate closer to 16 to 18 percent per year.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d buried two dollar bills in a tin can in 1959, those bills — paper bills which would have bought a gallon of milk and three to four gallons of gasoline 50 years ago — would today buy you a QUART of milk and less than HALF A GALLON of gasoline. You would have LOST VALUE, big time.<\/p>\n
However, if you\u2019d gone to the bank 50 years ago, exchanged your two dollar bills for two SILVER dollars, and then buried your two SILVER dollars, today they\u2019d be worth at least 25 to 30 current greenbacks, allowing you to buy approximately four gallons of milk and seven or eight gallons of gasoline. Even though you\u2019d have a zero \u201crate of return,\u201d your \u201cinvestment\u201d would have held its value and more — which securities denominated in paper dollars almost never do, once we allow the kleptobankers to replace real banknotes \u201cexchangeable in specie\u201d for the legalized fraud known as fiat currency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kevin writes in from Buffalo, N.Y., in response to my March 15 column, \u201cProhibitionists force pain patients to live in agony\u201d: Mr. Suprynowicz, Thank you for this article. As a chronic pain patient, I find it more and more difficult to get prescriptions for the medication I need to have a quality of life worth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drug-war","category-extreme-green"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-37","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}