Pharmaceutical Industry

Democratic politicians condemned Pfizer Inc's tax-avoiding "inversion" deal with Ireland's Allergan Plc on Monday, bringing another round of Washington hand-wringing over corporate taxes, but probably no immediate legislative action. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, blasted Pfizer for using legal loopholes to avoid paying its "fair share" of U.S. income taxes in a deal she said "will leave U.S. taxpayers holding the bag."

IN 1996 the state of Utah put John Albert Taylor, a man who had raped and murdered an 11-year-old girl, to death by firing squad. Chris Zimmerman, a retired police officer who investigated the murder, witnessed the execution. “Off to our left was Mr Taylor, off to the right, behind a wall, was the firing squad,” he remembers. “There was a countdown, and the firing squad were ordered to aim and fire. I heard a simultaneous explosion—you couldn’t tell the guns apart. He clenched his fists, his chest rose a little, like it was suddenly filled with gas. Then he unclenched his fists, the doctor walked out with a stethoscope and checked his pulse, and it was over.”