The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

1. Ours Not to Reason Vioxx

It was only a month ago that Merck (MRK Quote) was furiously disputing a study that linked Vioxx and heart attacks.

"Merck Stands Behind the Efficacy, Overall Safety and Cardiovascular Safety of VIOXX," the company announced in an Aug. 26 press release. Merck "strongly disagrees with the conclusions" of an FDA-funded Kaiser Permanente study released earlier that week.

One of those conclusions, to refresh your memory, was that a high daily dose of Vioxx (used to treat arthritis and acute pain) increased the risk of heart attack and sudden cardiac death by more than three times. More important, a smaller, typical dose of Vioxx increased the risk of heart attack and sudden cardiac death compared with Pfizer's (PFE Quote) Celebrex, the Coke to Vioxx's Pepsi in the pain-relief market.

That wasn't the first time that people published suspicions of a link between Vioxx and increased cardiac-health risk, and that Merck denied it. ...