I’ve discussed my Bezos Law before. It’s my theory that any industry Jeff Bezos enters will see lower prices. Now, Bezos’ Amazon.com and consortium of investors including JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway is about to enter the employee health care market. What does this mean for the future of health care? David Marino-Nachison writes in Barron’s Next:
When Amazon.com takes concrete, public steps into huge industries—which it did Tuesday, announcing a joint venture to tackle employee health care with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway—it should make investors blink.
But what else should they do? And when? (First, they should read Bill Alpert’s take for Barron’s about possible winners and losers.) Yesterday, our thoughts turned to last year’s news that Amazon was to buy fellow NEXT50 component Whole Foods.
Leading retail stocks were understandably shaken on that announcement. But looking back, somewhat subjectively, at the companies in The Wall Street Journal’s story on the announcement—namely, Costco, Kroger, Target and Walmart—it’s hard not to notice that they’ve all beaten the S&P 500 since.
So, it turns out, did the SPDR S&P Retail ETF.
The details of the latest Amazon news are still scarce. Analysts have noted that it’s far from the first sign of disruption in health care. (Or, of course, even the first from Amazon.) There are also a number of reasons stocks have risen since last summer.
But it’s hard not to notice that the “Amazon effect” can mean very different things in the moment—and over many moments.
Read more here.
Originally posted on Yoursurvivalguy.com.
