What Pfizer-Wyeth Merger Means for the Market

While writing earlier this morning about the impending merger of Pfizer(PFE Quote) and Wyeth(WYE Quote), the business media's simultaneous role was to put the proposed merger in some degree of perspective and perhaps draw wider meaning from the impending deal.

Take a step back and look at the big picture, which, in the end, is the only thing that matters to most savvy investors, who don't own either Pfizer or Wyeth. What might this mean or signal going forward for the drug industry? And what does this mean or signal for the economy at large?

The business media, as you might expect, failed you in this regard. On the first question, they basically operated as a chorus -- and one singing in an echo chamber, at that. With near unanimity, they trafficked in a suspect conclusion about what's bound to come next.

Somewhat remarkably, too, with the exception of The New York Times and a few others, they did not even attempt to answer the second question. Of course, it took some guts to do it. After all, it's a big deal. This merger could signal of a slight shift in mood, a thawing of the credit markets.

The Times appropriately got to the positive implications in the second sentence: "The deal would not only create a pharmaceutical behemoth but would be a rarity in the current financial tumult: a big acquisition that is not a desperate merger of two banks orchestrated by the government.