The Price of Everything
A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity
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4.1 • 7 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
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.
Customer Reviews
Worth the price of admission
As someone with a limited understanding of economics I found this book to be very helpful in organizing my thoughts around the subject. This book will not (by itself) make you an economist. It may, however, help you have a wider understanding of such things as supply and demand and how efforts to manage economies for better outcomes may lead to unintended outcomes.
As other have commented the novel-like style of the book felt a little too contrived to me, but at the same time the lack of dense technical details do eventually lead the uninitiated reader through to what feels like a match better understanding of the subject.
A must read for anyone interested in economics
This book was so fun to read, and cleverly imparts so many economic principles, especially emergent order. Highly recommended.
Great book
I've gifted the physical copy of this many times.