Tuesday's Assorted Links
Personalized pricing, NASCAR, Guinness, Christmas trees, and ozempic
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
New York state will require businesses to disclose personalized pricing, or when they use customers’ personal data to charge some people more [The New York Times]
NASCAR is facing a federal antitrust trial [AP News]
Gen Z turned Guinness into the nation’s most photographed pin, but has also pushed prices up and fueled shortages [The Independent]
A lot of economic data on Christmas trees [American Farm Bureau]
Ozempic is changing how we spend money and time, plus what we eat [The Washington Post]
Pantone picked “Cloud Dancer” as the 2026 Color of the Year. It looks like plain white, but the economics behind how Pantone became the authority on color are far more interesting. This week’s post explains how a single company created an industry standard, built a powerful network, and changed how designers, printers, and manufacturers communicate.
The Economics Behind Pantone’s Color of the Year
If you had to pick a color to define next year, what would it be? Something bold? Something muted? Something that reflects how people feel about the state of the economy?
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