Hello. Welcome to countdown. Im mark barton. Im anne aedwards. The euro has been hitting new lows. The reason, the threat of deflation in the eurozone amid speculation that the European Central Bank President path draghi will begin quantitative easing as early as this month. His attention will be focused on some very important data. Inflation figures. Those figures might edge the European Central bank closer to a program of large scale Government Bond purchases. It is expected to show the first annual decline in Consumer Prices in five years. With oil prices staying low, it could show a slump in growth. The e. C. B. Moving towards full blown quantitative easing. For more, lets go to hans nichols. He is live in berlin for us this morning. Could draghis case of quantitative easing be bolstered this morning by inflation or deflation numbers . Technically yes. What we expect to get from this headline number is 0. 1 . That would make his case easier that the e. C. B. Needs to step in and fu
Like the new 1,000 per pill hepatitisc drugs. Everyday drugs to treat conditions like Blood Pressure more than doubled over past few years. Those prices are expected to go even higher. Despite the promise of generics to bring prices down. For more on this, lisa gill, prescription drugs editor at Consumer Reports joins me now. Lisa, welcome back to the show. Thanks. Gerri weve had 11 increase in drug prices since 2007 and that is despite the fact that generics comprise 86 of all pharma out there. So i thought prices were supposed to crater, not go up . It is true. A lot of blockbuster drug prices have dropped but meanwhile other prices on some of those key remaining branded drugs and specialty drugs are boeing way up. Gerri theyre driving overall Prices Higher . They are. A couple of other things. More people are taking medications first of all and you have a aging population. That is another issue. Gerri well that adds into the mix too. I was looking forward to some of these prices act