Economics in the News – Nov. 18-24

Economics impacts our lives every day. Below are some of the top storylines from this past week in economic news. 

• How much will Thanksgiving cost Americans this year? NPR’s Indicator from Planet Money discusses it on their podcast, as costs for Thanksgiving have been charted for nearly 30 years.
   
• Baby boomers are going to sell nearly 21 million homes over the next two years, but many of the homes are not in popular areas among Millenials and Gen X, according to a story from The Wall Street Journal.
   
• Tesla announced it’s latest vehicle which CEO Elon Musk’s company is calling the ‘Cybertruck’. Tesla plans to start manufacturing the truck in 2021, according to Reuters. Within three days of its launch, Tesla has received 200,000 orders for the new vehicle.
  
  
• The U.S. stock market edged lower last week, bringing an end to a streak that has seen Wall Street climb for six consecutive weeks. A seventh week of gains would have been the largest stretch of weekly gains in two years, the Associated Press reports.
   
• Last month, economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for their work in trying to reduce global poverty. The Economist chronicles how the three economists used randomized controlled trials (RCT) during their research. Given its success, it has also raised some questions among economists.
  
  
• Many governments are taking initiatives to encourage innovation to spur economic growth. The World Economic Forum summarizes how various government organizations across the world are trying to accelerate that innovation.