One of my favorite econ professors at Stanford got an inquiry from a big oil company. They wanted her to do some consulting for them, relevant to mergers, acqu

One of my favorite econ professors at Stanford got an inquiry from a big oil company. They wanted her to do some consulting for them, relevant to mergers, acquisitions and the result on oil prices. She wanted to politely tell them no. So she quoted triple her normal hourly rate, already hundreds of $ per hour. They said "sure" -- so she had to tell them no the old-fashioned way :)