Gridlock in Congress causes a suspension in FAA taxes on airline fares. But many (most) airlines quickly raised prices so that the consumers saw the same price.
This is not what market competition predicts, so is a smoking gun of market failure, grounds for anti-trust investigation and punishment. Perhaps it can be considered a silver lining of the otherwise depressing and destructive budget struggle.
Market competition predicts that a downward shift of the supply curve (lower taxes) should cause a decrease in price according to the slope of the demand curve. The slope of the demand curve is almost certainly not shallow (if so, slight changes in price would be causing tremendous changes in demand; I don't see myself choosing to fly or not based on a few dollars change), which could have caused the scenario observed if it were shallow.
Instead we see a classic example of game theoretic coordination (for monopoly pricing) by following a market leader.
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