Episode 112: If you’re not already familiar with the term surge pricing, it’s likely you’ll hear a lot more about it soon. Simply put, it’s when businesses identify times when there is a high demand for their products or services — whether an Uber ride or a pint of beer — and raise prices.

Anyone who has taken am introductory economics course learns that when supply of something is low and the demand is high, prices will go up. What’s new is that technology lets those changes happen quickly and with little warning to those affected. 

Richard Kyte and Scott Rada discuss whether there are any ethical pitfalls around this new way of doing business.

Links to stories discussed during the podcast:

Uber, Lyft ripped for surging NYC prices during storm, flooding, by Emily Crane, New York Post

The rise of surge pricing: 'It will eventually be everywhere,' by Oliver Barnes, Philip Georgiadis and Laura Onita, Financial Times

Giuliani’s drinking, long a fraught subject, has Trump prosecutors’ attention, by Matt Flegenheimer and Maggie Haberman, The New York Times

About the hosts: Scott Rada is social media manager with Lee Enterprises, and Richard Kyte is the director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wis. His forthcoming book, "Finding Your Third Place," will be published by Fulcrum Books.

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