PeppercomBlog

What is a “price point,” really?

Posted by Milos Sugovic

There’s a faddish bit of marketing jargon that’s overused and makes absolutely no sense to me: the infamous “price point.” To the users of such lingo, I sincerely ask: what does it mean and how is it any different from that other short word that frequently does the trick - price?

You see, what puzzles me most about “price point” is the following: I’ve studied economics for the past seven years (and counting) and have been exposed to a whole range of topics at four different universities, one of which happens to be the London School of Economics. Never, and I repeat never, have I heard a professor of economics juxtapose the words “price” and “point.” And you know why? Because it’s meaningless.

Blame to Go Around

Posted by Matt Purdue 

Bernie Madoff made off with millions of dollars in advisor fees generated by his Mother of All Ponzi Schemes. But now he’s been nailed, jailed and will spend the rest of his life enjoying three hots and a cot. I feel for his victims, I really do. But some of them are hardly blameless. 

In California, real estate developer Robert Schapiro, himself a victim of the scheme, has become a leading advocate for his fellow investors who have been Madoffed. He recently told the press that the average Madoff investor "is not a super-wealthy person. These are people who worked their whole lives, had maybe $200,000 — $400,000 invested. Their sole source of income was Madoff, and many are elderly. That’s why they’re so desperate." 

Within that plea lies the problem: “Their sole source of income was Madoff.” Again, I sympathize with Schapiro and his cohorts. But there’s something fundamentally wrong with entrusting your entire nest egg (in technical terms, your portfolio) to one investment advisor. The number-one rule of investing is diversification: spread your capital around to avoid taking on too much risk in one area.

Data Savings or Data Faking?

Posted by Milos Sugovic

 

It turns out Andrew Gelman, a professor of statistics at Columbia University, was right when crying out about the use, misuse and abuse of graphs in academic research. It seems to me like businesses aren’t much better. To illustrate, let’s look at this typical problem as a 6th grade math assignment:

Source: Opera Turbo White Paper

          What’s wrong with the above chart?

           (a)  the x-axis isn’t labeled

           (b)  the y-axis isn’t labeled

           (c)  there’s no unit of measurement

           (d)  one cannot deduce the difference between the red and blue line

           (e)  all of the above

The correct answer is “e,” all of the above. The scary answer is: I came across the chart in a white paper produced by a software company.