Years ago a Canadian friend was gently mocking me by saying that soon the only industry in the U S would be yard sales and selling each other insurance policies.

One of you touted the fiduciary responsiblity of the CEO and board to the stockholders. So anyway what happens to these companies when people stop buying their product because they can't afford the luxury?

As production shifts overseas has the price of the product come down? U S automobile companies have been increasing the third world content of their product, with the resulting decrease in quality, but the price keeps rising.
Look at all the incentives the car dealers are offering to move product off their lots. Then tell me that the economy is healthy. Poor car sales are just the beginning.

My thoughts exactly

THE ARTICLE BELOW
is worth reading.. IT explains why J&J consumer division is their LUCRATIVE BABY!!
you can ALSO read between the lines why the LITITZ shop was probably closed. and you can't blame MEXICO this time.

"As J&J feels its way through foreign territories, Pfizer is helping it plug some holes in its geographic reach. J&J, for example, has never been a big player in Mexico, whereas Pfizer has."
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BUSINESS WEEK

JUNE 18, 2007

J&J's New Baby

I&J's critics, however, say far too much of the company's ebullience rests on the success of its CONSUMER products business. Beyond those comfortable perimeters, the company faces serious challenges. In the pharmaceutical arena, the FDA is considering strict new limits on J&J's anemia drug Procrit, which brings in $3 billion in sales a year. An additional $7 billion could fall off the top line when J&J's schizophrenia drug Risperdal and its epilepsy and migraine treatment Topamax go generic in 2008 and '09, respectively. There are few potential blockbusters in J&J's pipeline to replace them. And sales of J&J's heart failure treatment Natrecor, which it picked up in a $2.4 billion acquisition four years ago, have sagged in the wake of studies suggesting it might increase the risk of death. Analysts expected the drug to be bringing in annual sales of $1 billion by 2007. They now estimate the company will struggle to sell more than $100 million of it a year. And there are federal and state probes into marketing practices related to some of the company's drugs, heart stents, and orthopedic products.

Meanwhile, recent studies have sparked worries that drug-eluting stents can cause blood clots in some patients. That has curbed demand for the tiny metal tubes, which J&J invented in 1994 as a way to prop open clogged arteries. Last year, the company paid $1.4 billion to acquire stentmaker Conor MedSystems, which was positioning its stent as a safe alternative to rival products because it releases drugs in a precise, measured manner. But in May a trial of Conor's most advanced stent failed. J&J stopped developing the product and pulled it from Asia, Latin America, and Europe, where it was already on the market.
THE CONOR DEBACLE, ONE OF THE
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:go0y65...25/b4039062.htm