The Price of Everything at Amazon

My new book, The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity is now available for pre-order at Amazon for the lovely low price of $16.47 in hardcover. Scheduled arrival is August 4. Here’s the blurb:

Stanford University student and Cuban American tennis prodigy Ramon
Fernandez is outraged when a nearby mega-store hikes its prices the
night of an earthquake. He crosses paths with provost and economics
professor Ruth Lieber when he plans a campus protest against the
price-gouging retailer–which is also a major donor to the university.
Ruth begins a dialogue with Ramon about prices, prosperity, and
innovation and their role in our daily lives. Is Ruth trying to limit
the damage from Ramon’s protest? Or does she have something altogether
different in mind?

As Ramon is thrust into the national
spotlight by events beyond the Stanford campus, he learns there’s more
to price hikes than meets the eye, and he is forced to reconsider
everything he thought he knew. What is the source of America’s high
standard of living? What drives entrepreneurs and innovation? What
upholds the hidden order that allows us to choose our careers and
pursue our passions with so little conflict? How does economic order
emerge without anyone being in charge? Ruth gives Ramon and the reader
a new appreciation for how our economy works and the wondrous role that
the price of everything plays in everyday life.

The Price of Everything is a captivating story about economic growth and the unseen forces that create and sustain economic harmony all around us.

Here are the back cover quotes:

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable"
: A remarkable use of parables and dialogues to convey economic
intuitions. This should be mandatory reading for anyone who wants to
understand this branch of applied philosophy we call economics.

Vernon Smith, Nobel Prize-winning economist
: This is a great story about human, social, and economic betterment
brought about by the forces of spontaneous coordination. It’s also
about justice and there’s a warm ending. Read and enjoy.

Paul Romer, Stanford University : The Price of Everything
illuminates the astonishing economic world we live in. This book could
change your life–reading it will give you a sense of wonder about the
everyday marvels that are all around us.

Deirdre N. McCloskey, author of "The Bourgeois Virtues" : The Price of Everything is sensationally good fiction and sensationally good economics.

I hope you like it.

Comments Share Print Email

Milam Command

I second Alan above, promise I will purchase it(as well as your other books--I just bought Invisible Heart) if and when it is available in Kindle edition. Thanks!

Robbie

If it's available for the Sony eBook Reader (ebookstore.sony.com). I'll definitely buy a copy.

LowcountryJoe

You didn't pick a title with the word "fault" in it. I'm shocked and quaking with anger. You ask for us to serve up some advice and then don't take it; what kind of racket have you got going here? Where's the love?

Dave

Trumpit, there are all ready ways to price discriminate in the marketplace, charging different prices for virtually the same product. A few examples:

Hardware stores have been known to intentionally put dings in upscale grills. They sell the "damaged" grills for a lower price than the pristine ones.

Airfares are typically lower if they are made in advance for weekend stays because this indicates personal, rather than business travel.

Coupons are a way of price discriminating as well. Those who are wealthy do not spend time scouring the newspapers for 50 cents off coupons, because the opportunity cost of the time is too high. They then pay more for their groceries, and other similar items then the coupon hunters do.

They are literally thousands of examples like these, and the best part is that they all come about through profit incentives.

Your example may be extreme in charging 1 cent for milk to a homeless man because it surely costs more than one cent to produce the milk. Here you are asking for some sort of subjective fairness rather than economic efficiency. I won't go into a detailed response here, but you can search this and other econ blogs for posts that describe how prices contain important information about scarcity to learn more.

Unit

Yeaaaahhhh!

Trumpit

Wouldn't a better, more ethical system be one based on ability to pay? Why does the price of milk have to be the same for me as for Bill Gates? I don't mean to suggest that the price has to be $1,000 per gallon of milk for Mr. Gates (which is nothing for him) and 1 cent or free for the homeless guy on the street. Off the top of my head, say we have three prices: $0.50 for the "poor", $1.00 for the "middle class" and $2.00 for the "rich" Perhaps the weighted average of all purchases would be close to the market price. As I said, something strikes me as morally wrong about a one price fits all system. Now is your chance to insult me, call me names and tell my why I'm wrong (as usual).

David P. Graf

I'm embarrassed that I don't even recognize the names of the people praising your book. Of course, I'd recognize Hayek's name, but I don't think he's doing too many book blurbs any more. :-) It's too bad that we don't live a lot longer and so we could delve more into subjects like economics.

Student

Wow...you have some real heavy hitters praising your book...congrats.

brian

Slightly off-topic, but the McCloskey quote brought the question up in my mind: Russ, how do you feel about McCloskey's views on the relevance (or irrelevance) of truth in economics? I'd love to hear an EconTalk with her about it, if she's up for it.