Tuesday's Assorted Links
Airline capacity, robot baggage handlers, AI-generated websites, prediction markets, and charm pricing
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
JetBlue said it’s planning to cut flight capacity and hike fares due to surging fuel costs [Reuters]
Japan Airlines is using humanoid robots to handle passengers’ luggage on the tarmac at Tokyo’s Haneda airport amid a shortage of (human) labor [The Guardian]
Researchers investigating Internet Archive data found that roughly a third (35%) of websites created since 2022 are AI-generated [404 Media]
US senators voted to ban themselves from trading on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket amid rising concern about insider trading [CNBC]
Why you’re more likely to buy something for $4.99 than $5.00 [The Hustle]
Spirit Airlines shut down overnight last week with no warning, stranding thousands of passengers mid-trip. The collapse is a textbook example of the shutdown rule in action. Spirit kept flying through years of losses until a sudden spike in jet fuel prices pushed its variable costs above the price of every ticket already sold. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s worth a few minutes.
The Last Flight of Spirit Airlines
Angela Moreno had a wedding to get to. She’d booked her Spirit Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to Nashville months ago. Gas was cheaper, the Middle East was quieter, and Spirit’s bright yellow planes w…
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