Weekly News

62,000 Jobs Are Cut by U.S. and Foreign Companies
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/business/economy/27jobcuts.html
65,000 job cuts were announced on Monday alone, and those numbers keep rising. Automaker General Motors and construction and pharmaceutical makers Pfizer and Wyeth, Home Depot, and Sprint Nextel have cut 25,000 jobs combined. While automaker General Motors has cut up to 20,000 alone. Almost 2.59 million jobs have been dropped in our economy since the beginning of the recession in December 2007.


Obama Aims for Oil Independence
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7851038.stm
President Barak Obama is pushing to get America ‘free of our dependence on foreign oil’. He’s not just pushing for energy independence, he’s pushing for it fast. Obama promises to ‘reverse America’s dependence on foreign oil while creating jobs’ but also warned that there is no “quick fix”. Obama also labeled this choice as a ‘crossroads in history’, and ‘a future safer for our country, prosperous for our planet, and sustainable.’


Pfizer to buy Wyeth for $68 billion
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE50M1AQ20090126?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Talks between Pfizer and Wyeth to secure the buy are coming to a conclusion. Over the last while both companies have experienced some debt, though Pfizer has also managed to gain profits while Wyeth only seems to go downhill. The development of new drugs and competition from other companies have greatly contributed to Wyeth’s downfall. The talks between the two companies have mostly dealt with how the buy out will help to equalize the finances of the companies.

Medicare Broadens Coverage of Drugs for Cancer Patients
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27cancer.html
Is Medicare taking an unapproved risk? The Food and Drug Administration thinks so. Medicare has decided to cover cancer treating drugs even many that have not been approved by the FDA. There was little public debate over the topic even though many of the drugs may not work. Apparently the new policy makes it much easier to get even the questionable treatments paid for. A critic of the plan and a health policy analyst Steven Findlay said, “Medicare is providing carte blanche in treatment for cancers.”