Editorial Review:
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.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
The intricacies of emergent systems  2008-11-11
The story builds itself around the ongoing dialog between an economics professor Ruth Lieber and Ramon Fernandez, a Stanford student of Cuban origin. Observing a large corporate (aptly named Big Box) jacking up prices of necessities after an earthquake Ramon turns sympathetic to labor activists. Ruth explains to him wisely, compassionately, and in detail that there are many more factors (and results) that are in play behind the incident.
The author as he evinces in the book's afterwords is an admirer of the economist Friedrich Hayek and of emergent systems. Ruth's words to Ramon are basically descriptions of the intricacies and the beauty of emergent systems.
While I can claim that I've learned how to appreciate emergent systems better, I can't really say that I enjoyed how the author delivered his story. I felt the book wasn't really a piece of fine literature as the praises on the back cover of the book claimed it to be (and there were many, from luminaries Paul Romer, Vernon Smith, Nassim Taleb, and Deirdre McCloskey).
"The Price of Everything" is worth the price!  2008-10-24
Excellent book! Want to have an understanding of economics beyond "those darn oil companies are price gouging" AND be entertained with an engaging story? Then read this book!
My expectations were low 2008-10-22
This book exceeded my expectations. It gave me a few key points to make when the topic of "price-gouging" comes up around here (it always does.) I did not find it too preachy or obtrusive, I thought the story was coherent, and the characters likeable. I liked the questioning style. And really, any novel where Castro dies is going to get an above-average rating from me.
A didactic novel  2008-10-02
I was really hoping to enjoy this book, but when I actually began reading it, I understood all over again why Didactic Novels (novels written to teach) are never good novels.
There was an additional irritation: all of the basic economic facts were taught "Socratically" as if the student were a small child. But the student in this "novel" is the child of an emigre Cuban, currently attending Stanford. It seems almost unbelievable that the Great Economics Teacher should need to explain to her "student" that Cuba is, to put it mildly, not working very well. Even worse, the Great Teacher pretends not to know whether the Cuban failure is due to Castro and his tyranny, or the totally ineffective US embargo. (Cubans buy anything they want from Mexico, duh).
A much more interesting read is "The Best Book on the Market." It's just better in every way. It's probably better, even for children, who hate being talked down to.
An appreciation of "The Price of Everything" 2008-10-01
Though presented as fiction, this is the best (and most painless) primer on free-market economics I have ever read, and have been recommending it my friends to help them understand free-market thinking. It is very well plotted, flowed seamlessly and was a joy to read (and re-read). The protagonist is a Stanford economics professor named Ruth Lieber and the novel recounts her discussions with students both in her seminar and beyond.
The very best characteristic of this novel is that most of the characters who are at least initially unsympathetic to Prof. Lieber's free-market viewpoints are treated fairly, and presented as honorable persons of intelligence, passion and compassion. This stands out in our otherwise horribly fractured society in which so many, on all sides, labor mightily to demonize and excoriate anyone daring to adopt contrary points of view. It is possible, even likely, that an advocate of the students' positions could have put more persuasive or poignant arguments in the mouths of their fictional proxies. The simple fact that the author tried and succeeded in making their viewpoints seem plausible and honorable demonstrates that he respects his adversaries and their views, even though he disagrees with them. Do you remember when adversaries could politely disagree, without resorting to distortion and vitriol?
I tend to dog-ear pages that contain points worth pondering, writing worth remembering, and for easy access to useful examples that I might wish to revisit in a subsequent session. In my library, the average book has three or four pages so marked. I found that I had dog-eared so many pages in this gem that it is the untouched pages that now are easier to find in the book, if only because there were so very few of them.
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