Richard Thaler is coauthor, with Cass Sunstein, of "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness" (Yale University Press, 2008). "Nudge" discusses how public and private organizations can help people make better choices in their daily lives. "People often make poor choices—and look back at them with bafflement!" Thaler and Sunstein write. "We do this because as human beings, we all are susceptible to a wide array of routine biases that can lead to an equally wide array of embarrassing blunders in education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, happiness, and even the planet itself." Thaler and his co-author coined
Thaler thousands of dollars, and are highly sought after by serious collectors of thalers. Few circulated in any real sense so they often remain in well-preserved condition. In the Holy Roman Empire, the thaler was used as the standard against which the various states' currencies could be valued. One standard also adopted by Prussia was the Reichsthaler, which contained of a Cologne mark of silver. In 1754, the Conventionsthaler was introduced, containing of a Cologne mark of silver. In 1837, the Prussian thaler became part of a currency union which set the value of the southern German gulden at per thaler.