Planet Money Newsletter

Spirit Airlines helped pioneer ultra-cheap flying and soared. Then legacy airlines copied them, outmaneuvered them with loyalty programs, and the economy turned against their core customers.

For decades, economists gave short shrift to the idea of monopsony — a power employers can have to suppress wages. Now a wave of research suggests it’s everywhere, and a new book argues it’s key to understanding today’s inequality.

Behind the acid blood and jump scares of the Alien franchise is an even more insidious horror: a single employer with unchecked power. How Weyland-Yutani helps explain monopsony — and the rise of inequality on Earth.

Lisa Kudrow is back in HBO’s beloved comedy The Comeback. It’s been more than a decade since we last saw sitcom star Valerie Cherish, and her present situation is bleak. The new show she’s starring in is being written by AI. But if we know anything about Val, it’s that she’ll always seize an opportunity, setbacks be damned.

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World Cup tickets are expensive, and buying them has been frustrating and confusing. But this is what economics is for: figuring out the best ways to allocate scarce resources. FIFA, steal these ideas.

From artificial intelligence to fatalities from music streaming to the effects of immigrants on elderly health care, the Planet Money newsletter rounds up some interesting new economic studies.

The grandson of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups creator has launched a campaign against The Hershey Company, which owns the Reese’s brand. He wants them to stop skimping on ingredients.

For decades, rising home prices have been an engine for middle-class wealth. Now a growing movement wants to slow — or even reverse — that trend. Are the politics around new housing development inherently stacked against them?

Cocaine has made a roaring comeback, and it’s having some big negative effects in the U.S. and around the world.

Planet Money went to the annual meeting of the American Economics Association, and we saw some fascinating papers presented there.