Pharma Bro

Sun 12.2.18

      The favorite essay this past month has been The Poster Child of Capitalism, Martin Shkreli.  The essay has been hovering near the top for months.  What is it about Pharma Bro that so mesmerizes?  In my original post, I speculated that he was axed because he wasn’t in the sacred circle.  Right on the money!  He was raised in a working class Brooklyn nabe and both his parents, Albanian immigrants, were janitors.  But . . . he’s a genius.  At 17, still in high school, he interned for a hedge fund belonging to Jim Cramer, CNBC's Mad Money host.  Here’s a list of the books Martin is reading in jail, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eqduVNrYhApiMw7HlemOF9vnWpxpmO0CVghBDfJEW68/edit#gid=1696249081.  No slouch, he!  Like me, he dropped out of high school early on and went to college later.

      A crook, definitely.  That’s not saying anything against him because the field he was operating in is 100% fraudulent.  Wall Street, hedge funds are populated by his like.  They’re all doing it, making bets they can’t cover with their fingers crossed, hoping for a hail mary pass.  Be it noted that some of his outrageous medical price hikes have not been lowered since Shkreli’s departure.  And as his lawyer, the hot-shot Ben Brafman said at Bro’s sentencing, “This has to be one of the most unusual securities fraud cases that I’ve ever been involved in.  There is no restitution … because at the end of the day, all the investors made substantial money.”

      I find it interesting that In February 2017, Shkreli was invited to speak at Harvard University. The requested travel was approved by judge Matsumoto, but Shkreli’s request to serve his prison sentence at the minimum security federal camp at USP Canaan was denied, and he was sent to federal prison. 

      What is it about this vainglorious stud muffin that so captivates us?

Is it his winning bid of $2 mil at auction of the Wu Tang Clan album.  Was it his offer on Facebook of $5,000 for a strand of Hillary Clinton's hair suggesting he might have plans to clone her?

      Let’s call it as it is – this Albanian cretin had to be shown his comeuppance.  His kind is a threat to society, the type who would rather go to jail than submit to the mind programming, the brainwashing, by mega corporations, the Don’t Be Evil, companies that tell you what to think, what to say, and how to behave.  Shkreli is free, and therefore a threat.  Look carefully at the people the state chooses to demonizes they might have something to teach you.  Pharma Bro, I’m sure, has figured out what he did wrong and will come out of prison wiser, and with new tools at his disposal.  I understand he can reapply for his brokerage license again.

      I say be wary of the state’s choice of bad guys deserving punishment.  Look at Martha Stewart’s comeuppance, she lied to the FBI, something that everybody is doing with impunity in Washington’s latest round of hearings.  Just Google any of these state fingered bad guys, the press is licking their chops at the schadenfreude, cheering on their misery..