Walter Williams, who built a career as a professor and writer, died on Wednesday. He was 84. Williams taught his final class on Microeconomic Theory at George Mason University on Tuesday. He was raised in poverty by a single mother in Philadelphia and earned his doctorate in economics from the University of California–Los Angeles in 1972. Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James remembered him as “an incorrigible fighter for freedom.”
Just a trickle of shoppers wandered through Macy’s on Herald Square in New York an hour after it opened. Many stores reported—or planned for—smaller crowds on Black Friday, reflecting concerns about further spread of the coronavirus. It will still likely prove the busiest shopping day of the year.
Spending over the holidays could increase by roughly 3.5 percent over last year, according to the National Retail Federation—despite an economy still limping from COVID-19 lockdowns. Last month’s consumer spending increased by 0.5 percent—the weakest rise since April, according to the Commerce Department.
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