Treasury Department Makes Block Purchase of Pricing Book

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The United States Treasury Department announced a block purchase of the book, “The Power of Positive Pricing,” today. The books will be distributed to Treasury employees.

“It’s an amazing book,” declared Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. “This is new information for me.”

It’s a surprising statement for the government’s top financial manager. Still, it’s unlikely that Geithner studied pricing as an undergraduate. He was a student of Mandarin at Peking University and Beijing Normal University before graduating with an A.B. in government and Asian studies. However, he did study economics while attending Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies where he was an international economics and East Asian studies major.

In discussing the book with staffers, Geithner was overheard exclaiming, “Some of the concepts discussed, like the need for revenues to exceed expenses… I mean, wow. Just wow. Think where we might be today if all of us read this a couple of years ago? Flex pricing, the impact of small changes on net profit, dual overhead, pricing on the margin. It goes on and on. Clearly, we can learn a thing or two from the private sector.”

Geithner, who watched the nation’s financial crisis unfold while overseeing the financial markets as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is considered one of the architects of the TARP bank bailout and government stimulus plan.

As Treasury Secretary, Geithner oversees the Internal Revenue Service. This is considered ironic since it was revealed during his confirmation hearings that he was repeatedly unable to correctly figure his own taxes. Before confirmation, Geithner repaid the government tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, plus more in interest. Fortunately for Geithner, he was not assessed any fines or penalties for erroneous returns during the tax years 2003, 2004, and 2006. Also, he escaped penalties for mistakes from 2001 and 2002 due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

“The Power of Positive Pricing” wasn’t written for Treasury officials. The book was written to help service contractors boost their bottom lines while building the top line through strategic pricing approaches. The book can be purchased for $28.95 from the Service Roundtable online store.