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DIAMOND-WATER PARADOX: The perplexing observation that water, which is more useful than diamonds, has a lower price. If price is related to utility, how can this occur? This paradox was first proposed by classical economists in the 19th century and was subsequently used as a stepping stone for developing the notion of marginal utility and the role it plays in the demand price of a good. The paradox is magically cleared up with an understanding of marginal utility and total utility. People are willing to pay a higher price for goods with greater marginal utility. As such, water which is plentiful has enormous total utility, but a low price because of a low marginal utility. Diamonds, however, have less total utility because they are less plentiful, but a high price because of a high marginal utility.
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PERFECT COMPETITION, REALISM Perfect competition is an idealized market structure that does NOT exist in the real world. While some real world industries might come relatively close to one or two of the four key characteristics of perfect competition, none matches all four sufficiently that they can be declared PERFECTLY competitively. Some industries come close on the large number of small firms and the identical product characteristics. A few industries have relatively good, although not perfect, information about prices and technology. However, almost all industries fall far short of the perfect mobility characteristics.
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GRAY SKITTERY
[What's This?]
Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time flipping through the yellow pages looking to buy either a T-shirt commemorating next Thursday or a birthday gift for your uncle. Be on the lookout for jovial bank tellers.
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This isn't me! What am I?
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A thousand years before metal coins were developed, clay tablet "checks" were used as money by the Babylonians.
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"Managing intellectual assets has become the single most important task of business. " -- Thomas Stewart, author
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NYCE
New York Cotton Exchange
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