Amazon has found a new industry to disrupt

Today 's Diary

Amazon Rx

The long-awaited invasion of Amazon.com Inc. in the pharmacy sector has begun.

Amazon announced today that it was buying PillPack, a mail order medicine vendor, for an undisclosed amount, ending many months of speculation and anxiety in the area of Health care that Amazon, Destroyer of Industries, came to buy next. It turns out that's it! Stocks of pharmacies and pharmaceutical management companies, Rite Aid Corp., CVS Health Corp. and Express Scripts Holding Co. fell. And an additional sympathy for Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., which started its earnings call just when the Amazon deal was announced; its stock dropped 10%, just a week after replacing General Electric Co. in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Max Nisen and Shira Ovide write that the great justified fear of the industry is that Amazon will do what it has done to other companies that it has invaded: destroy profit margins. They also point out that PillPack could be a useful tool for Amazon's mysterious joint health care venture with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. – who may or may not threaten a greater part of the business. health care industry. If you are wondering why so many health care companies are trying to merge in recent times, that's why.

Max and Shira note that this is not the first stroke of Amazon in the pharmacy sector; He bought Drugstore.com almost 20 years ago and sold it to Walgreen. His foray into brick and mortar groceries via Whole Foods Market has not yet killed this business. But pharmacies still have reasons to worry.

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Bonus Amazon reading: Technological Companies Must Stop Calling 'The Amazon' whatever it is. – Shira "The Amazone of the Technology Writers" Ovid

The Battle of SCOTUS

The Clock is now on President Donald Trump to choose a replacement for the Supreme Court Judge Anthony Kennedy who is retiring.

Moderate Senate Republicans would do well to urge Trump to choose another "swing" justice in the mold of Kennedy, write the writers of Bloomberg . Otherwise, the court will be perceived as increasingly partisan and will lose credibility: "Nothing in the history of the United States is more important than maintaining the respect of the Supreme Court. . If Senate Republicans fail to do this, it will be their most egregious failure to date. "

The Trade Fight

Trump's threatened tariffs on foreign-made cars will increase the prices of cars made in the United States, writes Anjani Trivedi – and that could make new cars unaffordable for many Americans already attached. "Like real wars, trade wars have victims," ​​she writes. "This one does not seem to have a real winner, whatever the president says."

When he this is trade, "Trump is right about China, but wrong in his method," writes Michael Schuman who offers what he says is a better approach: Deal Chinese companies in the same way that China treats US companies.

The Brexit Fight

Brexit boosters promised voters leaving the European Union the coffers of the nation, freer trade and the bouncy hair No d These things have not happened – in fact, the UK economy has only made it worse – and yet the Brexiters in the UK are only more determined to leave than ever before. Thérèse Raphaël explains what is happening.

Bonus British Reading: British companies hope that England's football team goes deep into the World Cup will stimulate the economy. Mark Gilbert suggests that this logic may be as fragile as England's chances of bringing back the Cup.

Trump's Antitrust Favoritism

The AT & T Inc. effort to buy Time Warner Inc. was not easy. He recently overcame an aggressive resistance from Trump's Justice Department. The effort of Walt Disney Co. to purchase the entertainment assets of Twenty-First Century Inc., on the other hand, has been remarkably easy from an antitrust point of view. And the cooperation of the Department of Justice was suspiciously timely to help Disney repel a competing bid from Comcast Corp., writes Joe Nocera: "I have a hard time believing that the same antitrust division feared so much the market power of a combined AT & T-Time Warner seems so unenthusiastic about the potential power of a Disney-Fox combination. "

Chart Attack

Ambitions Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Sarah Berzack

Major US banks have done more or less well on the Fed's stress tests to date. So why did their actions collapse in the last two weeks? Stephen Gandel explores

Speed ​​Round

US airlines should not fear the threat of boycott not to recognize Taiwan as an integral part of China. – Adam Minter

Letting Trump meet Vladimir Putin is a terrible idea. – Eli Lake

Trump seems to have pushed OPEC to pump more oil, but the new is not good for him. – Meghan O 'Sulllivan

The problems of Europe are too great for Mario Draghi to repair this time. – Ferdinando Giugliano

Harvard and other prestigious schools are reducing their admissions and to accumulate money when they could educate more and more. # 39; children. – Noah Smith

You can help the poor by shopping at Walmart. – Stephen Carter

ICYMI

The shares bounced back. Ray Dalio recedes a little. There was a shooting in a Maryland newspaper.

Kickers

Here's how cities contribute to the carbon footprint of the world

Elon Musk is in conflict over a gas unicorn. 19659003] Silicon Valley has developed an app to help the homeless … get out of your sight.

Here are the winners of the National Geographic Travel Photographer contest.

Note: Please send your photos, suggestions and suggestions to Mark Gongloff at [email protected]

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To contact the author of this story:
Mark Gongloff at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Timothy L. O & # 39; Brien at tobrien46 @ bloomberg .net