Cancer... Horrible Disease or Economic Savior?

Cancer is a horrible thing ... if you have it. But it's paying for lots of sports cars and keeping doctors from being unemployed! Not only are we not sure what causes it, but cancer also costs a small fortune to deal with. Drugs for pancreatic cancer can cost $4,000 a month, but even with the drugs, you only get to live a few extra weeks. While advances are allowing patients to live longer, costs of care are going up. "Cancer sticker shock is hitting hard now, as a list of more advanced biotech drugs have made treatment rounds costing $100,000, or even more, no longer a rarity." Speaking of expensive treatments... Dr. Tomoaki Kato removed a half dozen organs during a 15 hour surgery to remove a cancerous tumor for Brooke Zepp. "The organ transplant specialist said he first had to remove her stomach, pancreas, spleen, liver and small and large intestines... They were re-implanted in their normal position after the tumor -- which was about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter and wrapped around Zepp's aorta and the base of two other arteries -- was removed." Perhaps someone should do some research that directly compares competing treatments to determine which offer the best shot at survival for the money. In the meantime, the costs related to cancer will employ many people ordinary people ranging from the day laborer who are hired illegally to help build the hospitals to the guy who changes the oil on your oncologist's Porsche.

In International News...

These women are not trying to get at the brains of the store clerk inside, but rather just the subsidized food due to rising prices. "From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India." Will prices ever stabilize... of course they will... just give it time. Lots and lots of time. Lets not forget that gas prices continue to rise. But people are buying houses again. So perhaps the economy is not doing that bad?

China seem to be running out of fuel. Why do we care? Well for starters a lack of oil was part of the reason Japan attacked pearl harbor. To make matters more complicated, “Prices are set by the government, so consumers should not panic over fears of surging prices or try to stockpile fuel.” Great, so the government keeps the price down, but there is no gas to buy... that works out oh so well. China also seems to be wrong about who is responsible for disrupting the Olympics. Despite all the noise coming out of China about how the Dali Lama wants to ruin the Olympics, it seems that the French are the ones actually disrupting things. "Three men advocating press freedom evaded massive security and ran onto the field at the ceremony in Ancient Olympia"... yup... thats it. They ran onto the field. Stop the presses! "Men run on field at sporting event." Yeah... so I guess there wasn't much else to talk about today. Other than of course the Japanese praying dog.