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Except Amazon is arguing for a lower price because it will increase sales and make both Amazon and the publisher more money. They aren't asking for more books o
by slowmovintarget 12y ago
Except Amazon is arguing for a lower price because it will increase sales and make both Amazon and the publisher more money. They aren't asking for more books or less editing. They're trying to make everyone more money.
Worse, the argument is over pricing on e-books, not physical stock, so Hachette's stance makes even less sense.
As usual, Paul Krugman sees everything through a political lens, so naturally Amazon is evil and must be beaten down.
- bryanlarsen 12y agoLower prices increase sales and profits for Amazon because they compete against book stores. Lower prices decrease profits for book publishers who make money both from Amazon and book stores.
- panarky 12y agoAs another author and Nobel laureate said[1], "everything is politics". If the lower price really would make more money for everyone, then surely Hachette would readily do it. Since they don't, and since they understand this market as well as anyone, a reasonable person might assume that they would indeed make less money with a lower price. Even free-market fundamentalists must see that free markets don't function when dominated by monopoly or monopsony. So isn't there a legitimate public policy question about whether the state should limit that market power? [1] http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann