Like prescription drugs, textbook publishers sell their books at a premium in the USA, then they mark the price down 90% to sell in other countries, particularly in the Asian continent.

So my risk management (options/futures/derivatives) textbook was priced at $160 on Amazon, and I bought mine for $20 (including shipping) from this site. It was shipped from India and arrived two weeks after I ordered it (let's remember that the USPS does their holidays government-style).

The price on the book was listed as 350 rupees, and I consulted with a coworker from India who informed me that 350 Rs = $7.

One of the topics we discussed last night in the risk management class was how the Jefferson County Commission was fleeced in an interest rate swap related to the sewer contract that went bad (and now everyone involved is in deep doo-doo). Any sort of zero-sum contract like swaps, futures, options, forwards, etc can be very complicated and difficult for someone who is not trained in these financial areas to understand. So, it is feasible that the County Commission was genuinely fooled into paying 20 basis points for the swap (about 15 above average). What scares me about the County Commission is that (a) they are very corrupt and (b) they have way, way, WAY too much power. No bid contracts? Raising sales taxes without a referendum? The worst case of money mismanagement I have ever studied? Scary. The general complaint from government officials is that nothing can be improved in the state of Alabama without raising taxes, and citizens consistently vote against those measures. I'm actually willing to pay a higher state/county income tax, but because the people in charge couldn't manage a damn nickel if it were delivered to them on a silk pillow, I have zero confidence that whatever money is coming out of my paycheck and into county coffers is doing any good for anyone, anywhere, other than lining the pockets of the County Commission and their cronies.