The Price of Everything

There has been an earthquake and power is spotty in the bay area of California.  Ramon and Amy head to Home Depot to buy a flashlight and perhaps other items.  Home Depot is sold out.  They decide to try Big Box, a Walmart-like store. but the prices have shot up.  The woman in line in front of them cannot afford baby formula.  Ramon helps her afford her purchase while grumbling that Big Box has raised its prices during this emergency.  And so begins Ramon's economic awakening.

Ramon Fernandez is a Cuban-American who happens to be a top tennis player in his senior year at Stanford.  On account of his tennis fame, he has considerable recognition and decides to speak out against Big Box for gouging in the wake of the earthquake.  However, Amy is taking an economics course with Professor Ruth Lieber, who evangelizes for the power of prices to organize the market.  Before long, Ramon finds himself talking to Ruth about capitalism, fairness, gouging, and other such topics.  Initially, he disagrees with her and speaks at a rally against Big Box.  He has hardly finished when the crowd breaks windows on the campus.  It was not what he had wanted but he was the face of it.  The organizers had used him.  Even so, he still opposes Big Box and doesn't like the idea of the company making a huge donation to the campus.  Ramon can't help but notice that Ruth had warned him that it wouldn't go as he hoped.  Now hooked, he spends a lot of time conversing the Ruth and she with him.  He is slated to give a speech at commencement and he thinks she is just trying to get him not to denounce Big Box, but he can't figure her angle.  She does make some provocative points on how prices guide resources to where they are most valuable, but it's still unfair.

This is a book about economics that is embedded in the tale of students in their final year at Stanford.  It is a long lecture that is broken into different scenes in the lives of the characters.  Much of what is here has been repeated multiple times in EconTalk.  It is a great economics book presented in an entertaining narrative form.  Lots to digest.

Recommended.