Use It Or Lose It: Parents Set Wages Aside For Child Care. Now It's At Risk For many families, 2020 ended up being a year with fewer child-care expenses. Now parents with unspent funds in their dependent-care flexible spending accounts are trying to figure out what to do. Andrea Hsu
'We Need To Build More Homes': Prices Soar Amid Housing Shortage It's not only low interest rates pushing up prices to record highs. A historic lack of homes for sale is a big part of it too. And it's making homeownership unaffordable for too many people. Chris Arnold
Planet Money: The Lemon Plays A Critical Role In The Mafia's Creation The essential ingredient in the birth of the mafia wasn't the threats or the murders or the other stuff that's great for Hollywood movies. It was lemons. Our Planet Money team explains. Cardiff Garcia
Saudi ArabiA Will Host Virtual G20 Summit This Weekend Leaders of the world's biggest economies will meet virtually — depriving Saudi leaders the chance to show off their country. It also might help them avoid attention on human rights violations. Jackie Northam
Florida Just Passed A $15 Minimum Wage. Is The Time Right For A Big Nationwide Hike? Florida became the eighth state and the first in the South to adopt a $15 minimum wage. Replicating this in other states and on the federal level remains a challenge. Andrea Hsu
FAA Gives Boeing OK To Resume 737 Max Passenger Service After 20 months on the tarmac that followed two fatal crashes, Boeing's troubled airliner has been given the green light by the Federal Aviation Administration. Scott Neuman
12 Million People Could Lose Jobless Benefits After Christmas A new study finds that unless Congress breaks its impasse, millions of Americans will lose "life-saving" jobless benefits at the end of December, and that could spell financial ruin for many. Chris Arnold
Retail Sales Barely Budge Ahead Of Critical Holiday Season Shoppers kept buying electronics and home improvement supplies, but sales overall rose only 0.3% in October. Alina Selyukh
Stocks Surge After Moderna's Vaccine News Reinforce Hopes About COVID-19 Fight Investors were also reassured by comments from two Biden advisers that no nationwide COVID-19 lockdowns are being contemplated. Jim Zarroli
Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Shines In Clinical Trial Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is nearly 95% effective in preventing illness, according to an interim analysis of a clinical test involving 30,000 people. Joe Palca