Pricing & Monetization Blog: Page 11

The Federal Reserve and United States government have taken unprecedented actions to support business operations, financial institutions and housing prices. The Fed has kept the federal funds rate at a near-zero rate for almost half a decade (the monthly average... [read more]

Rational actors will never pay more than is necessary. Given two identical products that produce equivalent levels of value, they will always select the cheaper of the two. In economics, we refer to this principle as "wasting money is stupid." However, many companies are violating this principle by going out of their way to increase their labor... [read more]

Many marketplaces can be characterized by the effort required to enter them. On one end of the spectrum is nuclear energy. New businesses in this field have to comply with many government regulations, spend enormous amounts of money to construct facilities and convince concerned citizens that their presence does not foretell the second coming... [read more]

Many folks know that I purchased a new Toshiba Chromebook for a very low retail price. While I've been thrilled with the device itself, I've kept the exact nature of my laptop hidden from much of the world. It's not that I think that I made a bad buying decision, but... [read more]

I attended a conference with a keynote speaker from a very famous company. Like many in the audience, I was eager to hear the great pearls of wisdom that would soon be flowing from from his mouth. After all, I'm a lowly business owner, yet the man who would soon be standing in front of me was a titan of industry with an impressive set of... [read more]

Interesting things happen when the normal rules just don't work. In economics, we typically describe such environments as "broken markets." One such case: the market for hot sauces. Every year, millions of people utter the following phrase: I like spicy food. But there is a growing subset of folks who don't... [read more]

Last week was terrible - my laptop died. Far from old age, my trusty companion had nevertheless been rendered unusable. I had to purchase a replacement. Any salesman worth his salt knows that the easiest sale sale to make is a person who has a pressing need. Desperate folks are usually too overwhelmed to think clearly and don't have the time... [read more]

I know two project managers who are currently looking for work. Both in the same geographic area and similarly skilled in their trade. The economist in me perked up when I heard the news. Not because I'm happy to hear that anyone is out of work, but because situations such as these present an opportunity to learn new economic lessons by asking... [read more]

I've been rather sure of myself lately. The more I looked around the world, the more I came to the conclusion that pricing wasn't just an important facet of business, but it was the facet of business. It was the answer to every question and the cause of every action. That is, until yesterday when my entire world came crashing down. As... [read more]

Something very upsetting happened to me. One of my tomatoes went bad before I had a chance to eat it. It's terrible that I had to waste money to pay for food I never ate. Wouldn't it be great if I could recover the money I wasted on the purchase price? We live in a world in which insurance is bought without a second thought. In recent... [read more]