The industry wants the FAA to use demand to better schedule furloughs, which "could include managing furloughs on an hourly basis, as opposed to by the day, " said Airlines for America spokeswoman Jean Medina.

WSJ: Airlines Dispute Planned Air-Controller Cuts

The disaster has reduced Tokyo Electric Power Company's capacity to about 34 gigawatts, 20-30% short of peak demand at this time of year, forcing the utility to schedule power cuts.

ECONOMIST: The world economy

Furthermore, the setting of the Medicare fee schedule exempts most of medicine from basic rules of supply-and-demand.

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