Defending Pharma

As an economist, I often find myself defending "bad guys"--companies outsourcing American jobs, gas stations gouging consumers with high prices, Wal-Mart undercutting small retailers with low prices, Mexican immigrants sneaking into our country, the Chinese fixing their exchange rate, American companies opening sweat shops abroad, foreign companies dumping cheap goods onto our markets, and pharmaceutical companies profiting off other people's sickness and misfortune. Sometimes I feel like a defense attorney for economic criminals.

Unlike real defense attorneys, however, I get clients that are mostly innocent. The study of economics provides a cogent defense for these alleged evil doers.

In this month's Commentary, Peter Huber has a good defense of Big Pharma. I am happy to outsource the job to him for a change. (Thanks to Newmark's Door and Marginal Revolution for the pointer.)