Priceless

Author: William Poundstone
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429943939
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Book Description
Prada stores carry a few obscenely expensive items in order to boost sales for everything else (which look like bargains in comparison). People used to download music for free, then Steve Jobs convinced them to pay. How? By charging 99 cents. That price has a hypnotic effect: the profit margin of the 99 Cents Only store is twice that of Wal-Mart. Why do text messages cost money, while e-mails are free? Why do jars of peanut butter keep getting smaller in order to keep the price the "same"? The answer is simple: prices are a collective hallucination. In Priceless, the bestselling author William Poundstone reveals the hidden psychology of value. In psychological experiments, people are unable to estimate "fair" prices accurately and are strongly influenced by the unconscious, irrational, and politically incorrect. It hasn't taken long for marketers to apply these findings. "Price consultants" advise retailers on how to convince consumers to pay more for less, and negotiation coaches offer similar advice for businesspeople cutting deals. The new psychology of price dictates the design of price tags, menus, rebates, "sale" ads, cell phone plans, supermarket aisles, real estate offers, wage packages, tort demands, and corporate buyouts. Prices are the most pervasive hidden persuaders of all. Rooted in the emerging field of behavioral decision theory, Priceless should prove indispensable to anyone who negotiates.

Priceless

Author: Robert K. Wittman
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307461483
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
The Wall Street Journal called him “a living legend.” The London Times dubbed him “the most famous art detective in the world.” In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair. Rising from humble roots as the son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career that was nothing short of extraordinary. He went undercover, usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid. In this page-turning memoir, Wittman fascinates with the stories behind his recoveries of priceless art and antiquities: The golden armor of an ancient Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that inspired the Impressionist movement. The headdress Geronimo wore at his final Pow-Wow. The rare Civil War battle flag carried into battle by one of the nation’s first African-American regiments. The breadth of Wittman’s exploits is unmatched: He traveled the world to rescue paintings by Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet and Picasso, often working undercover overseas at the whim of foreign governments. Closer to home, he recovered an original copy of the Bill of Rights and cracked the scam that rocked the PBS series Antiques Roadshow. By the FBI’s accounting, Wittman saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and antiquities. He says the statistic isn’t important. After all, who’s to say what is worth more --a Rembrandt self-portrait or an American flag carried into battle? They're both priceless. The art thieves and scammers Wittman caught run the gamut from rich to poor, smart to foolish, organized criminals to desperate loners. The smuggler who brought him a looted 6th-century treasure turned out to be a high-ranking diplomat. The appraiser who stole countless heirlooms from war heroes’ descendants was a slick, aristocratic con man. The museum janitor who made off with locks of George Washington's hair just wanted to make a few extra bucks, figuring no one would miss what he’d filched. In his final case, Wittman called on every bit of knowledge and experience in his arsenal to take on his greatest challenge: working undercover to track the vicious criminals behind what might be the most audacious art theft of all.

Priceless

Author: Miranda Silver
Publisher: Miranda Silver
ISBN: 9780463160077
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Book Description
Are you afraid of the dark, Christina? I don't need the lights on to read you like a book. The first time I meet the wolf’s cold eyes, we’re at a college party. Maybe you like the dark more than you think. I just quit the cheer squad. I’m about to dump my musician boyfriend. I’m partying harder than ever. I let money run through my fingers because I’m done reaching for standards I’ll never meet. Soon, I’m broke. And I don’t want anyone to know. The more you hide your true self, the more you’re going to let it out with me. I'm bubbly and outgoing. He's icy and alone. I stay away. I touch myself, thinking of him. When I finally seek out Patrick Caruthers, he has a proposition. Mind games. Humiliation. Control. Schedules. Him. Me. I think you’re going to be the perfect playmate. I'm not perfect. I'm not stunning or noble. I’m not a heroine. You’re priceless. I'm just a girl . . . You were made for me. And he’s a cold bastard

Priceless

Author: John C. Goodman
Publisher: Independent Institute
ISBN: 1598133977
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Book Description
In this long-awaited updated edition of his groundbreaking work Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, renowned healthcare economist John Goodman ("father" of Health Savings Accounts) analyzes America's ongoing healthcare fiasco—including, for this edition, the failed promises of Obamacare. Goodman then provides what many critics of our healthcare system neglect: solutions. And not a moment too soon. Americans are entangled in a system with perverse incentives that raise costs, reduce quality, and make care less accessible. It's not just patients that need liberation from this labyrinth of confusion—it's doctors, businessmen, and institutions as well. Read this new work and discover: why no one sees a real price for anything: no patient, no doctor, no employer, no employee; how Obamacare's perverse incentives cause insurance companies to seek to attract the healthy and avoid the sick; why having a preexisting condition is actually WORSE under Obamacare than it was before—despite rosy political promises to the contrary; why emergency-room traffic and long waits for care have actually increased under Obamacare; how Medicaid expansion spends new money insuring healthy, single adults, while doing nothing for the developmentally disabled who languish on waiting lists and children who aren't getting the pediatric care they need; how the market for medical care COULD be as efficient and consumer-friendly as the market for cell phone repair... and what it would take to make that happen; how to create centers of medical excellence, which compete to meet the needs of the chronically ill; and much, much more... Thoroughly researched, clearly written, and decidedly humane in its concern for the health of all Americans, John Goodman has written the healthcare book to read to understand today's healthcare crisis. His proposed solutions are bold, crucial, and most importantly, caring. Healthcare is complex. But this book isn't. It's clear, it's satisfying, and it's refreshingly human. If you read even one book about healthcare policy in America, this is the one to read.

Priceless

Author: Joel Smallbone
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1617958727
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Book Description
The powerfully compelling novelization of the major motion picture by Joel and Luke Smallbone of the band for King & Country. James Stevens was, at one time, a good man with a great life. After the tragic death of his wife and losing custody of his little girl, James is at the darkest crossroad of his life. Angry, desperate, and unable to hold down a steady job, he agrees to drive a box truck on a shady, one-time trip cross country for cash-no questions asked. When he discovers what he is delivering is actually a who, the questions in his mind begin haunting him mercilessly. James becomes an unlikely hero who must fight to save the lives of two young women and finds himself falling in love with one of them. Can love, strength, and faith redefine his past and change the course of his future?

Priceless

Author: Frank Ackerman
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1459604253
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
As clinical as it sounds to express the value of human lives, health, or the environment in cold dollars and cents, cost-benefit analysis requires it. More disturbingly, this approach is being embraced by a growing number of politicians and conservative pundits as the most reasonable way to make many policy decisions regarding public health and the environment. By systematically refuting the economic algorithms and illogical assumptions that cost-benefit analysts flaunt as fact, Priceless tells a ''gripping story about how solid science has been shoved to the backburner by bean counters with ideological blinders'' (In These Times). Ackerman and Heinzerling argue that decisions about health and safety should be made ''to reflect not economists' numbers, but democratic values, chosen on moral grounds. This is a vividly written book, punctuated by striking analogies, a good deal of outrage, and a nice dose of humor'' (Cass Sunstein, The New Republic). Essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of human health and environmental protection, Priceless ''shines a bright light on obstacles that stand in the way of good government decisions''.

Priceless

Author: Lloyd Constantine
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1616083751
Category : Antitrust law
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
The author provides an account of the antitrust lawsuit his small legal firm brought against Visa and MasterCard, resulting in a $3.4 billion settlement in 2003.

Priceless Memories

Author: Bob Barker
Publisher: Center Street
ISBN: 1599952351
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
In front of the camera, he has been invited into the homes of millions of Americans as host of The Price Is Right, Truth or Consequences, Miss USA, Miss Universe, The Rose Parade, and many other programs and specials. Now Bob Barker shares stories of favorite contestants, episodes, celebrity encounters, and behind-the-scenes happenings. Beyond his public persona, he will open up about his personal life. From being raised on a Native American reservation by a single mother through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, to training as a pilot in the Navy during World War II, through his romance with the love of his life and high school sweetheart, Dorothy Jo, and his success at retirement. His support of animal rights has always been a central part of his life. Bob delves into stories of how he has taken on Hollywood and the government in his crusade, including his anti-fur stand-off with beauty pageants, his involvement in uncovering animal abuse in movies and television, and the legislation he helped to pass. He also shares personal stories of rescuing animals, from dogs to elephants. For the innumerable fans who have welcomed Bob into their homes over the last fifty years, this book will be like catching up with a dear and familiar friend who continues to lead a full and endlessly interesting life.

That Is Priceless

Author: Steve Melcher
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN: 1449409393
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Book Description
It all started when Melcher stumbled upon a postcard in a museum gift shop for Peter Paul Rubens's The Finding of Erichthonius. Inspiration struck, and Melcher scrambled for a Post-it note and scribbled down what he thought was a more appropriate title: Worst Secret Santa Gift Ever. And with that, That Is Priceless was born. More than 150 images are gathered inside the book's full-color pages--from Courbet's The Desperate Man reimagined as Johnny Depp Realizing He Left the Oven On to Degas's Portrait of the Artist James Tissot retitled as Portrait of the Artist in Mom Jeans. Part art history, part parody, and entirely laugh-out-loud funny, That Is Priceless gives musty old paintings a 21st-century pop culture face-lift, enlivening the artist's canvas with playful comic irreverence.

Pricing the Priceless

Author: H. Spencer Banzhaf
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108853064
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
Historians of social science will benefit from the detailed examination of how economics expanded into new areas like the environment. Environmental historians will benefit from an understanding of how economics claimed to be 'on the side' of the environment. Environmental economists will benefit from the contextualization of their field.