In this day and age, I find it surprising enormous corporations have not figured the difference in the perception of a fee vs a discount. Adding a fee causes consumer uproar. They feel the faceless no good bully is trying to make money unfairly. Even people who probably will avoid ever paying the fee on…
From the TED’s About This Talk: Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies the bugs in our moral code: the hidden reasons we think it’s OK to cheat or steal (sometimes). Clever studies help make his point that we’re predictably irrational — and can be influenced in ways we can’t grasp. When I ran across Dan Ariely’s…
60 Minutes said most stock trades are made by computers without human involvement designed by math wizards for pennies of profits per trade over billions of trades. Milliseconds become important to beating the competition (other computers) by being faster. Getting close to or in the stock exchange buildings has physical effects. Of course, a bad algorithm…
I found this PayScale College Return On Investment (ROI) calculation in Businessweek interesting. (Bold areas added by me.) The PayScale calculation differs in two other respects as well. Like many ROI models, to calculate the cost of a college degree it includes all college expenses—tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies. But instead…
A physician’s decision of “hip surgery vs ibuprofen” is a relatively straightforward decision, especially when one can try the ibuprofen then go with hip surgery later. One compares something to another thing. Add a secondary choice like in “hip surgery vs (ibuprofen vs peroxicam)” and people flip into going with hip surgery instead. When I watched…
American politics frustrates me. Little of it is genuine. People are being tricked into believing obvious lies. Positions are veiled in marketing speak to make them sound better than the reality. Maybe there is an honest candidate? I just don’t have faith in the integrity in the American political system. In any case, I have…
U.S. News: This might explain why my collegiate friends can’t get real jobs. Too much competition? BBC News | BUSINESS | US joblessness hits eight-year high The recession may be over, but we have not recovered. A fine distinction, I know. With most of the major economies still down, it seems like it would be difficult…