The One Lesson of Business

CHAPTER
2 The One Lesson

of Business
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● Voluntary transactions create wealth by moving assets from
lower- to higher-valued uses.
● Anything that impedes the movement of assets to higher-
valued uses, like taxes, subsidies, or price controls, destroys
wealth.
● Economic analysis is useful to business for identifying assets
in lower-valued uses.
● The art of business consists of identifying assets in low-
valued uses and devising ways to profitably move them to
higher-valued ones.
● A company can be thought of as a series of transactions.
A well-designed organization rewards employees who
identify and consummate profitable transactions or who stop
©2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or
otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. ©Kamira/Shutterstock Images 2
Kidney Transplants
● Two prominent hospitals recently refused patients for

kidney transplants because the organs were from
“directed donations.”
• The kidneys were meant for specific people
● Demand for organs is high – far exceeding supply –
and many never receive them.
● Despite high demand and low supply, buying and
selling organs is illegal.
● Why?
Apartments
Suppose you want to move from Detroit to Nashville
● First, you would try a two-way trade Detroit Nashville
● Failing that, you’d try a three-way Detroit Nashville

connection with another city Los Angeles
● Need to find correct trades with

correct timing = difficult!
● Like with kidney transplants, compatibility problems

lead to inefficiency
Capitalism 101
To identify money-making opportunities,

you must first understand how wealth is created
(and sometimes destroyed).
● Key note: Wealth is created when assets are moved
from lower to higher-valued uses
● Definition: Value = willingness to pay
Desire + Income = You want something + you can pay for it
● Key note: Voluntary transactions, between individuals

or firms, create wealth.
• Meaning, people create wealth by pursuing self-interest.
Housing Example
A house is for sale:

● The buyer values the house at $130,000
• This is the buyer’s top dollar – willingness to pay
● The seller values the house at $120,000
• This is the seller’s bottom line – won’t accept less
The buyer and seller must agree to a price that “splits”
surplus between buyer and seller. Here, $128,000.
Surplus
The buyer and seller both benefit from this transaction:

● Buyer surplus = buyer’s value minus the price
$130,000 - $128,000 = $2,000 buyer surplus
● Seller surplus = the price minus the seller’s value

$128,000 - $120,000 = $8,000 seller surplus
● Total surplus = buyer + seller surplus = difference in

values
$2,000 + $8,000 = $10,000  $130,000 - $120,000 = $10,000
$10,000 are the gains from trade
Wealth-Creating Transactions
● Which assets do these transactions move to higher-

valued uses?
• Factory Owners • Corporate Raiders
• Real Estate Agents • Insurance Salesman
• Investment Bankers
● Discussion: How does eBay create wealth?
● Discussion: Which individual has created the most
wealth during your lifetime?
● Discussion: How do you create wealth?
Do Mergers Create Wealth?
● Do mergers follow the wealth-creating engine of

capitalism? Do they move assets to a higher-valued use?
• Our largest and most valuable assets are corporations.
● Ex: Dell-Alienware merger:
• In 2006, Dell purchased Alienware, a manufacturer of
high-end gaming computers.
• Dell left design, marketing, sales and support in
Alienware’s hands.
• Dell took over manufacturing though, using its expertise
to build Alienware’s computers at a much lower cost.
Do Mergers Create Wealth?
● However, many mergers and acquisitions do not

create value
• If they do, value creation is rarely so clear
● To create value, the assets of the acquired firm

must be more valuable to the buyer than to the
seller
Does Government Create Wealth?
● Discussion: What’s the government’s role is wealth creation?

• Enforcing property rights and contracts legal tools that
facilitate wealth creating transactions
• Ensures that buyers and sellers keep gains from trade
● Discussion: Why are some countries so poor?
• No property rights
• No rule of law
● Discussion: Much of the justification for government
intervention comes from the assertion that markets have
failed. One money manager scoffed at this idea. “The markets
are working fine, but they’re giving people answers that they
don’t like, so people cry market failure.”
The One Lesson of Economics
● Definition: An economy is efficient if all assets are employed in

their highest-valued assets.
• This is an unattainable, but useful benchmark
● The One Lesson of Economics: The art of economics consists in

looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any
act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy
not merely for one group but for all groups.
● Must look at the intended and unintended effects of policies to
understand their efficiency
● The economist’s solution to inefficient outcomes is to argue for a
change in public policy.
● Business person’s solution is to try to make money on the
inefficiency
The One Lesson of Business
● Definition: Inefficiency implies the existence of

unconsummated, wealth-creating transactions
● The One Lesson of Business: The art of business
consists of identifying assets in lower valued uses
and devising ways to profitably moving them to
higher valued uses.
● In other words, make money by identifying
unconsummated wealth-creating transactions and
devise ways to profitably consummate them.
Destroying Wealth
Anything that stops assets from moving to higher

valued uses is destroying wealth.
• Taxes Destroy Wealth:
• By deterring wealth-creating transactions – when the tax is
larger than the surplus for a transaction.
• Subsidies Destroy Wealth:
• Example: flood insurance encourages people to build in areas
that they otherwise wouldn’t
• Price Controls Destroy Wealth:
• Example: rent control (price ceiling) in New York City
deters transactions between owners and renters
● Which assets end up in lower-valued uses?

Profiting from Inefficiency
● Taxes create a profit opportunity

• Discussion: 1983 Sweden tax
● Subsidies create opportunity

• Discussion: health insurance
● Price-controls create opportunity

• Discussion: Regulation Q. & euro dollars
• Discussion: What about ethics?
Wealth Creation in Organizations
● Companies = a collection of transactions

● They buy raw materials (capital, labor, etc.) and create
and sell higher-valued goods and services
● Can equate market-level problems (taxes, subsidies
and price controls) with organization-level goal
alignment problems
• Ex: The overbidding from the oil company = “subsidy”
paid to management for acquiring oil reserves
● Allows us to use the same analysis

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CHAPTER

2 The One Lesson

● Two prominent hospitals recently refused patients for

Suppose you want to move from Detroit to Nashville

● First, you would try a two-way trade Detroit Nashville

● Failing that, you’d try a three-way Detroit Nashville

● Need to find correct trades with

● Like with kidney transplants, compatibility problems

To identify money-making opportunities,

● Key note: Voluntary transactions, between individuals

A house is for sale:

The buyer and seller both benefit from this transaction:

● Seller surplus = the price minus the seller’s value

● Total surplus = buyer + seller surplus = difference in

● Which assets do these transactions move to higher-

● Do mergers follow the wealth-creating engine of

● However, many mergers and acquisitions do not

● To create value, the assets of the acquired firm

● Discussion: What’s the government’s role is wealth creation?

● Definition: An economy is efficient if all assets are employed in

● The One Lesson of Economics: The art of economics consists in

● Definition: Inefficiency implies the existence of

Anything that stops assets from moving to higher

● Which assets end up in lower-valued uses?

● Taxes create a profit opportunity

● Subsidies create opportunity

● Price-controls create opportunity

● Companies = a collection of transactions

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