Vertex (VRTX): A New Addition to My Portfolio

     I managed to save about $9,000 from my main jobs over the last two years; so I thought I would put that money to work by making a new investment.  I first learned about Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) from a book sold by Second Renaissance Books--a precursor to the Ayn Rand Estore.  Of the 12 books about medicine that the catalogs endorsed, which I have read, The Billion-Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug, by Barry Werth, is my absolute favorite.  The author returned 20 years later to write a follow-up about Vertex (VRTX), The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma.  This second book tops the list of the 10 non-Ayn Rand catalog books about medicine that I have read.

Vertex (VRTX) is one of the major players in the world in cystic fibrosis medicine.  My brother was tested genetically; and it turned out that he is a carrier of that gene.  Thankfully, no one in my family has CF.  However, if the biology follows a simple genetic pattern, I have a 50% chance of also being a carrier.  This gives me a personal interest in promoting Vertex (VRTX), on top of the financial gain I stand to make.

As I know from the books I read, Vertex (VRTX) is a company run by geniuses in business.  However, they are just as much so in the realm of science.  Being based in Boston, Massachusetts has enabled the company to attract top talent in the high-tech hub site there.  Anyone who has been following my blogging over the last 10 years can see that I switch focus, back and forth, from medicine to science, periodically.  Eventually, I plan to make the switch, again; and owning Vertex (VRTX) is ideal for me, as the geniuses there will outdistance every other biotech company, I know of, as my new science comes in.

In the meantime, though, I'm sticking with medicine--with my three pharmaceutical picks: (LLY), (ABBV), & (VRTX).  Economists (the good ones) know that when a business sector is suppressed with heavy regulations, the companies in it will not perform well.  Pharmaceuticals are one of the most controlled and oppressed areas of the economy.  I, too, know this.  However, what I am betting on is that I can be invested before those regulations go away, and then see my profit skyrocket.

Paul Wharton
Objectivist Capitalist Medicine Promoter

An Incomocracy: a Constitutionally Limited Republic from the Productive

     For centuries, America has operated with a system from democracy in electing the President and Representatives in the form of government called a Constitutionally Limited Republic.  It has worked well--the best that any devised, and known, system could have, in the history of civilization going back to when it was invented in Ancient Greece.  That is...until Obama.

The current, and questionable, "president" refuses to enforce America's immigration laws--even going so far as to manipulate cargo ships and planes to go out from our borders and flood this country with what will be argued as "new votes".  Not only will the mass homelessness result in crime, espionage, and disease, many politicians will grudgingly use tax dollars to dole out forms of "welfare".  If only there was not this "more voters" incentive that is driving the democrats.  After wrestling with the issue for years, last night I thought of a solution: an Incomocracy.

In an Incomocracy, one dollar produced in the previous calendar year equals a weight of one vote.  Its strict definition is:

Incomocracy is a Constitutionally Limited Republic from the Productive.

This means that a six year old girl, if she made $20 last year at her lemonade stand, gets a weight of 20 votes in each election that has her in its jurisdiction.  And, Bill Gates, if he made $20 billion last year, gets a weight of 20 billion votes in each election that has him in its jurisdiction.

As an Objectivist, I should note that this new form of electing government officials is not from my readings of Ayn Rand.  It is entirely created by my own design.

Paul Wharton
Objectivist Capitalist Medicine Promoter