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Economics in the News - April 26-May 2

Economics impacts our lives every day. Below are some of the top storylines from this past week related to economics.

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." -- Stephen King, author
With bank accounts flush with cash, Americans have stepped up their spending in March. The Commerce Department reported a 21.1 percent increase in personal income in March, which is the largest on record and aided by the $1,400 stimulus checks sent to many Americans as part of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue package.

Personal spending increased 4.2 percent, with a 10.2 percent increase on durable goods such as furniture and cars. Spending on nondurable goods, such as clothes and groceries increased 6.5 percent last month. Spending on services lagged behind goods, increasing 2.2%, but that is still the largest increase since June 2020. However, Americans did not spend all their income last month. The personal savings rate also nearly doubled to 27.6 percent. [NPR]

Will you need to show your vaccine passport the next time you travel? A new research survey conducted by Ispos for the World Economic Forum shows that the majority of adults worldwide believe vaccine passports should be mandatory for travel. More than 21,000 people in 28 countries were surveyed and 78 percent of respondents support mandatory vaccine passports for travel.

The survey covered a wide range of scenarios of requiring vaccine passports with a majority believing they should be required to enter a stadium or concert venues, along with shops, restaurants or offices. Support for banning the unvaccinated from large gatherings was found in Brazil, the United States and Canada where 60 percent of those surveyed backed the idea. [World Economic Forum]

The National Hockey League is headed to Turner Sports. Beginning in the 2021-22 NHL season, Turner Sports will act as the second national television partner for the league after ESPN. Turner is paying a reported $225 million annually for the deal which has a total value of $1.57 billion over a seven-year span

Turner purchased the rights to broadcast three Stanley Cup Finals in those seven seasons, along with select regular season and playoff games. NBC will end its 17-year partnership with the league, as its sole national rights holder in the United States. The deal between the NHL and Turner comes less than a month after ESPN partnered with the NHL for its primary national television rights package. [The Athletic]

While COVID-19 vaccination campaigns aimed at Black and Latino communities have made gains and have convinced more people to receive the COVID vaccine, rural, mostly white and overwhelmingly Republican communities remain skeptical of the vaccine.

The leading cause of their apprehension is fear that it was developed too quickly, and their long-term side effects aren’t known. President Joe Biden’s administration and public health officials are making small-town, rural communities their latest priority in the effort to vaccinate the majority of the United States population. [The New York Times]

Your morning cup of coffee could soon see a price hike. A slowdown in the global supply chain and extreme weather were contributors for a major crop loss in 2020 for coffee suppliers. Brazil, for instance, lost an estimated 30 percent of its Arabica coffee crop – severely impacting one of Brazil’s leading exports.

Experts warn that warmer temperatures and more extreme weather will continue to impact the viability for growing coffee. It’s estimated that 10.7 million fewer bags of coffee will be produced during 2021-22 than in the previous time season. The reduction in supply will drive up prices further. [The Wall Street Journal]

Credits:

All images credited to iStock.

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