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It is a common belief from people with business training, that pharmaceutical companies do not want a one time cure for diseases, because it only creates a one time revenue stream. However, if the drug company could manage the disease with medication, that would generate years worth of revenue. This dilemma brings up an ethical question, is profit more important than bettering society and helping people.

Also, if cures are unprofitable vs maintenance of the disease with medication; are companies even investing research dollars towards finding future one time cures for diseases.

Finally if I am a public traded corporation that answers to shareholders, the CEO is going to most likely choose the option that makes the most revenue per dollar invested.

Most business articles that I have read believe that corporations will always choose medications over a cure for disease to treat patients, because it is more profitable.

I know that this is a hotly debated subject, and their are many opinions on the subject. I would be interested to see what a researcher has to say vs a corporate CEO that answers to shareholders.

As an MBA who has worked in businesses most of my adult career, I know that the current 2025-2026 layoffs are not from Artificial Intelligence improvements. The US is in a slowing economy, and every quarter companies have an earnings target they have to make to keep their stock price high. So in order to make these earning targets, companies have decided to layoff thousands of employees in order to save wage expenses and improve quarterly total revenue. This tactic in business is called window dressing. Companies also cut hours to employees one week before the end of the physical quarter to make their earnings look larger than they actually are. Companies will do these things to make, or beat analyst earning forecasts. The true winners are the shareholders and the true looser are the workers or employees.

The US National Debt is as of today 1/29/26 trending at 38 Trillion US Dollars, and projected to grow to 40 trillion shortly. In 2026 the US interest on Treasury securities is expected to be 1 Trillion US dollars, and this amount will continue to grow every year. Currently the interest on the US debt is 22% of 2026 US revenues. I see a future where the United States has to issues new Treasury securities to pay the debt on old Treasury securities. If the US was a company, they could not stay in business long practicing this type of debt management.

A callable bond is a bond with provision that allows it to be reissued at a lower interest rate in the future. A high interest rate bond with a callable provision can be called and reissued at a lower internet rate. Many junk bonds use this provision when their bond rating improves and the bond can be reissued at a lower interest rate. Macy’s recently called a bond to lower their interest rate obligations. The transaction with Macy,s will complete on August 28.

The Consumer Price Index is a market basket of all goods and services in the US economy. The base year is 1983. It is important to note that some items in the CPI measurement such as food and beverage can go up and other items such as fuel can go down; yet CPI can increase. For example we might have deflation in gasoline, however, cereal, beverages, and housing could increase at a faster level. In this example CPI would increase over the measured period and inflation would rise. The key take away is that some goods increase and some goods decrease in price, but every year overall prices rise 2 to 3 percent. Finally, some goods always decrease in price over time. Some examples are laptops and flat screen TVs. Also CPI is not always a good measure of price level. For example, apartment rents will always be higher in New York, New York than they will be in Memphis, TN. Many people will argue that workers are paid more in New York City than somewhere like Memphis, TN to compensate for higher price levels. However, I would guess that the average worker would have a higher standard of living in Tennessee than New York. We will speak more on wages in upcoming posts.

Systemic risk is also known as market risk, and can’t be reduced through diversification in a portfolio. An example of market risk would be the United States putting a major tariff on a country like China. This would cause almost every stock to go down, so diversification will not help in this case.

Unsystematic risk can be reduced through diversification. A diverse portfolio will usually contain 30 stocks. When an investor obtains at least 30 stocks, with the same dollar amount invested in each stock; non-market risk is eliminated. In this scenario, even if one company goes bankrupt, the entire portfolio will not be lost. Just remember, do not put all your eggs in one basket.

You may also want to consider investing in corporate bonds or treasury securities as a further way to diversify a portfolio.

War bonds were the way the United States funded most major wars. The war bond was first used during the Revolutionary War to fund the Continental Army’s fight against Great Britain. These bonds were also largely used to fund the US’s war effort against Nazi Germany, and Japan in WWII.

War bonds work on two key principles: one they are sold at a discount and they provide no coupons.

When a bond is sold at a discount the consumer purchases the bond at a value less than face value. Upon maturity full face value is paid to the consumer. For example, the War bond might be purchased for $85.00, and in 10 years it will pay the investor $100.00. In WWII the bonds were purchased for $18.50 and maturated at $25.00.

Zero coupon means that on a 1, 5, 10, 20, and 30 year bond no annual interest is payed on the bond. To compensate for this principle, the bonds are sold at a discount below face value. In the modern world, zero coupon bonds are less attractive to investors because they do not generate steady income streams each year.

Currently the US has discontinued war bonds; however if the nation ever went to a conventional war with Russia or China, war bonds would be needed to help finance military operations. I can see a future where these bonds will be needed again, but let us hope and pray this never is the case.

Happy Independence Day America, and remember the importance of the War bond to our Independence.

The governments of the world have two ways to raise capital to finance their nations: one is through taxation, and the second is through the issue of government bonds.

In the United States we use a bond called a Treasury Security. There are three types of Treasury Securities.

1. Treasury Bills
2. Treasury Notes
3. Treasury Bonds

Treasury Notes are short term Bonds with usually less than a year to maturity. They pay very little interest because they mature so quickly.

Treasury Notes are usually longer than a year to 10 years in duration. Interest rates vary on the notes, but they usually get a better interest rate the longer their duration.

Treasury Bonds duration are between 10 and 30 years. In normal economic times they pay the highest levels of interest.

As a quick note interest expenses on bonds can be expensive on a national government. In the case of a 30 year bond paying a 10 percent interest rate on a $1000 principle, the national government has to pay $100 per year on the bond to the investor. The total interest expense over the life of the bond would be $3000 plus $1000 repayment of the principle at year 30. You can see from the example that if a federal government issues large number of bonds, that interest expense can grow exponentially. According to fiscaldata.treasury.gov, The US will spend 776 Billion on Treasury security interest in 2025. This is a serious fiscal problem in the United States.

https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/interest-expense-avg-interest-rates/

To monetize the debt, a nations Central Bank purchases treasury securities on the open market. This creates invisible money, because the Nation is essentially borrowing money from itself. From an economics point of view, the nation is creating money from nothing. The United States has been following this practice for years. The nation has not had a balanced budget in 25 years, and each year the country spends more money than it takes in taxes and revenue.

Open market operations are complex on the Macro Economic scale, but in the United States all interest rates are controlled by the Federal Reserve performing Open Market Operations.

An open market purchase is when the Fed buys bonds on the open market. Money is then injected into the economy and interest rates fall. This policy was practiced from the late 2000’s till around the early 2020’s. The US economy was so weak that the Fed was forced to keep interest rates at a target rate of .0 – .25%.

The current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell took a different approach in order to fight inflation. He rapidly implemented the open market operation known as an Open Market Sale. In this strategy, the Fed sells bonds on the open market, therefore taking cash out of the market, and raising interest rates. This will reduce inflation by cutting consumer spending; however reduced consumer spending can lead to a recession. The current Federal Funds Rate Target is 4.25-4.5%.

Interest rates are quite complex, and the Fed has difficult decisions to make. The central banks objective is to keep year over year inflation at around 2.5-3% and to keep Unemployment low. Sometimes it is difficult to achieve both goals, but how to achieve these goals are highly debated in the business world.