The Price of Everything: Solving the Mystery of Why We

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Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 557 KB
Publisher: Portfolio (January 4, 2011)
Sold by: Penguin Publishing
Language: English
ASIN: B0046ECFRC

Business journalist and New York Times editorial writer Porter delivers a popular explication of how supply and demand affect prices. In vignettes about all manner of transactions, from coffee sales to marriage dowries to home values, he disputes notions that prices settle out as rational correlations of supply and demand. All sorts of emotional factors are involved, which enliven Porter’s stories as he explores divergent behaviors of upper-, middle-, and lower-income consumers in what they will pay for something. If a purchase expresses the pursuit of happiness, Porter chases the idea that money yields joy, concluding it can, though temporarily. What about the price of power? Porter adduces the cost of votes in São Tomé v. the United States, as he does the worth of labor, love, and life itself, practically breaking them down into a schedule of prices. As a book in which nothing, not even religion, seems safe from the crass intrusion of pricing, Porter’s work ought to ring up the audience for Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics (2005). --Gilbert Taylor Review "At a time of seemingly proliferating risks, though, Porter's searching book is a welcome reminder of the necessity of prudent decision making." -The New York Times Book Review "Porter offers us a shiny new lens for understanding the relationships around us that we too often fail to see" -Harvard Business Review "Thoughtful, detailed, and fascinating..." -BookPage "While an elegant and enjoyable read, The Price of Everything is also timely: Porter makes a strong case in the wake of the recession that it's silly for economists and policy makers to assume people act according to rational assessments or even in their own best interest." -The Associated Press "...energetic tour of the daily cost-benefit analysis called life." -Bloomberg News "...both entertaining and enlightening." -The Financial Times "a lively guide through the morass of economic theory... Everything has its price, and here we have a lucid explanation of where that price comes from." -Blogcritics "I loved it. Why? Because it's the kind of book that gives you a lot of insight into how to understand pricing things. I found it quite interesting and it'll definitely help you." -Chris Brogan "...the accessibility of his prose carries us along. And nothing escapes his gaze." -Sunday Times "If ever proof were needed that money does indeed make the world go around, Eduardo Porter provides it in this examination of how and why we ascribe certain, often perplexing values to objects and people" -Reader's Digest "Porter's book is an enthralling look at the prices we put, consciously and unconsciously, on everything from a gallon of gas to a spare kidney. Everyone could learn something from this wise and clever book. I did." - Tim Harford, Financial Times columnist; author of The Undercover Economist "Everything in the world comes with a price, but what does a price mean and how is it set? This riveting narrative is the best book on these very human and very important questions. There is an interesting nugget on virtually every page." - Tyler Cowen, coauthor of the Marginal Revolution blog "A fascinating journey through what we see every day-but do not think about enough. Eduardo Porter makes you think hard about the corporate interests at work behind the veil of prices (and much more). Just because people are willing to pay does not mean that the price is right-in any sense of the word." - Simon Johnson, coauthor of 13 Bankers; professor of entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management "Porter discusses the role of economic value not only in determining the cost of a premium cup of coffee, but also how in much different individuals and society are willing to pay to reduce the likelihood of death from, say, disease or car accidents, and even the economic logic behind who marries whom and bargaining between the sexes in marriage. I highly recommend this book to everyone who would like an often amusing and yet highly insightful discussion of how choices are made, essentially over the whole range of human behavior." - Gary Becker, economist and Nobel laureate "Price, an 'unacknowledged legislator' of human behavior, has found its poet in Eduardo Porter. The Price of Everything is a wise, illuminating, and necessary book." - Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) "Eduardo Porter unlocks the economic puzzles of daily life like a master safe cracker. The Price of Everything is clever, stylish and full of surprising insights. In other words, priceless." - Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind and Grand Pursuit: A History of Economic Genius The Price of Everything: Solving the Mystery of Why We