The gradual shift from charging transaction-based fees to an advisory fee model, amid a global move to discourage sales of risky exotic instruments, has added to the pressure on margins.
In an attempt to discourage sales representatives from hyping the value of GSK medicines, the company stopped paying them commissions.
But in Brazil eye-wateringly high taxes on art imports have been discouraging sales, although there is probably more being imported than the taxman knows about.
Investors seemed to think the higher prices would do more to boost the bottom line than they would to discourage sales.
The book then becomes this secret, dark artifact, imbued with the powers and properties of a famous death which would not discourage sales, one imagines.
"It is not easy to isolate and say: 'O.K., this tax, this is the effect it had.' " He said there were no clear indications yet that the tax had discouraged illicit sales of heating oil as diesel, though he had detected a slight change in buying patterns that might indicate some change.
People in the classical business may see a new Brahms Symphony No. 2 come out and be discouraged by sales of only 5,000 in the first year, but with about 200 recordings of that piece available, hundreds of thousands are sold each year.
The task force also discouraged cannabis sales at establishments that also sell alcohol, although it seems regulations around distribution will be left up to the provinces.
