DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is recalling its futuristic new Cybertruck pickup for the fourth time in the U.S. to fix problems with trim pieces that can come loose and front windshield wipers that can fail.

The new recalls, announced in documents posted Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, each affect more than 11,000 trucks.

The company says in the documents that the front windshield wiper motor controller can stop working because it’s getting too much electrical current. A wiper that fails can cut visibility, increasing the risk of a crash. The Austin, Texas, company says it knows of no crashes or injuries caused by the problem.

Tesla will replace the wiper motor at no cost to owners, who will be notified by letter on Aug. 18.

In the other recall, a trim piece along the truck bed can come loose and fly off, creating a hazard for other motorists.

Tesla says in documents that the trim piece is installed with adhesive, and that may not have been done properly at the factory.

The company will replace or rework the trim piece so it stays on. Owners will be notified by letter also on Aug. 18.

Tesla has recalled the stainless steel-clad Cybertruck four times since it went on sale Nov. 30.

Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists signed a joint letter Tuesday warning of what they see as economic risks if former President Donald Trump were to serve a second term, including reheated inflation.

“While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we all agree that Joe Biden’s economic agenda is vastly superior to Donald Trump’s,” the economists wrote. Axios was first to report the letter.

“There is rightly a worry that Donald Trump will reignite this inflation, with his fiscally irresponsible budgets,” wrote the group of politically progressive academics.

Trump has so far proposed making his first-term tax cuts permanent, imposing universal tariffs on all imports, with a China-specific tariff rate between 60% and 100%, and pressuring the independent Federal Reserve Board to cut interest rates.

Joseph Stiglitz in Paris on Sept. 15, 2022.Joel Saget / AFP via Getty Images file

Economists and Wall Street analysts alike have predicted that any or all of those proposals could reinflate prices, which remain vulnerable despite cooling slightly in recent months.

Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in 2001, led the effort to publish Tuesday’s letter. His co-signers include George Akerlof, Sir Angus Deaton, Claudia Goldin, Sir Oliver Hart, Eric Maskin, Daniel McFadden, Paul Milgrom, Roger Myerson, Edmund Phelps, Paul Romer, Alvin Roth, William Sharpe, Robert Shiller, Christopher Sims and Robert Wilson.

“Nonpartisan researchers, including at Evercore, Allianz, Oxford Economics, and the Peterson Institute, predict that if Donald Trump successfully enacts his agenda, it will increase inflation,” the economists wrote.

Stiglitz said he felt compelled to initiate the letter based on a flurry of recent polling in which voters said they trusted Trump over Biden to manage the U.S. economy.

“A lot of people think Trump would be better for the economy than Biden,” Stiglitz told CNBC in an interview. “I thought it would be important for Americans to know that at least a group of credible economists differs very strongly.”

The timing of Tuesday’s letter was notable, coming just days before Trump and Biden are scheduled to face off in the first presidential debate of the general election. The Atlanta debate hosted by CNN is expected to dedicate significant time to the economy and specifically, inflation.

The Trump campaign staunchly rejected the Nobel economists’ position.

“The American people don’t need worthless out of touch Nobel peace prize winners to tell them which president put more money in their pockets,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to CNBC.

Under Trump, the December year-over-year Consumer Price Index fell during three of his four years in office.

The Biden campaign seized the opportunity to tout the letter on Tuesday: “Top economists, Nobel Prize winners, and business leaders all know America can’t afford Trump’s dangerous economic agenda.”

The Nobel laureates’ letter contained a distinct political perspective, as well as an economic one.

Many of these economists signed a similar September 2021 letter expressing support for President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better package. Critics at the time argued that the massive spending packages would drive up inflation.

At the time, Stiglitz observed that some people “invoked fears of inflation as a reason to not undertake” the Build Back Better investments. “This view is short-sighted,“he said in a press release.

This time around, Stiglitz and his co-signers took a more cautious approach to inflation, after the U.S. economy has spent that last year recovering from 2023′s scorching inflation spike.

The higher prices were partly due to pandemic-era supply chain snarls, which left the global trade system unable to meet the pent up demand of American consumers.

But this demand was itself the result of a U.S. economy that weathered the pandemic better than many had anticipated it would — thanks to generous government subsidies like the expanded Child Tax Credit and the Paycheck Protection Program.

Since then, Stiglitz said, Biden has helmed a successful effort to cool those inflation peaks.

“Inflation has been brought down, actually, remarkably quickly,” he said. “I would say it’s because of Biden.”

More than 21 million Miniverse “Make It Mini” sets by California toymaker MGA Entertainment are being recalled because of potentially hazardous resins, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported Tuesday.

The resins, when in liquid form, can cause skin, eye and respiratory irritation or sensitization if inhaled, touched or ingested.

The resins contain acrylates in amounts prohibited in children’s products by the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. The resins do not present hazards after they change form from a liquid to a solid, the CPSC said.

MGA Entertainment, who also owns LOL Surprise and Little Tikes among other toy brands, has so far received 26 reports of kids and adults who were harmed by the toys, including reports of skin burns and irritation, and respiratory irritation, said the CPSC. In one case, a consumer’s asthma was triggered by exposure to one of the toys, according to the agency.

Recalled Miniverse Make It Mini – Food.CPSC

More than 21 million sets of the toys have been recalled in the United States with roughly a million more recalled in Canada.

The recalled toy sets include “Make It Mini Appliances,” all models and series of “Make It Mini Food” and “Make It Mini Lifestyle.”

Many of the sets are packaged in a sphere that contains the materials required to assemble the intended miniature imitation “appliance,” “food” or “lifestyle” items.

The CPSC noted that the resin packaging in each toy set may mimic food items such as a jar of peanut butter, a maple syrup bottle and a milk container, and the resins imitate food when hardened.

The toys were sold at Target, Walmart, Family Dollar, Dollar General, Aldi, Hobby Lobby and other stores nationwide, and also online at Amazon.com, from October 2022 through June 2024.

The toys were priced at $7 and $13 for individual sets and $14 to $52 for sets sold in a box.

Consumers are advised to immediately stop using the toys and to contact MGA Entertainment to receive a pre-paid label to return either the entire product — including the unused resin — if the product has not been opened, or the unused resins and a photograph of the product if the product has been opened.

Consumers can opt to receive a full refund or a replacement product.

For a full list of the recalled Miniverse “Make It Mini” sets, consult the CPSC website.

Consumers can reach MGA Entertainment by calling 800-222-4685 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, or emailing at mvcustomer_care@mgae.com.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday unveiled a new slate of financing initiatives to support housing development, including a $100 million fund specifically for affordable housing.

The announcement comes days before President Joe Biden faces off against former President Donald Trump in the first presidential debate, where inflation is likely to be a key point of contention.

The past several inflation reports have shown prices slightly cooling off, but shelter costs have remained persistently hot. The June consumer price index found overall inflation stayed flat in May, even while shelter inflation rose 0.4%.

As part of its new actions, Treasury will provide $100 million over the next three years to finance affordable housing projects. It is also calling on several agencies that help finance housing to bolster their support for new development.

Yellen will deliver formal remarks about the housing initiatives in Minneapolis later Monday. The speech is part of a tour around Minnesota, where she is lunching with CEOs and holding roundtables with housing officials in the state.

While the president hunkers down at Camp David to prepare for Thursday’s debate, Yellen is among a slew of Biden cabinet members who are making the rounds nationwide in an effort to promote the president’s economic agenda.

Acting Secretary for Housing and Urban Development Adrianne Todman and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, for example, have been traveling across the country to tout Biden’s infrastructure investments.

The economy has proven to be a major sticking point for Biden among voters, ever since the race for the White House kicked into high gear.

Driven by pandemic-era supply chain clogs and labor shortages, the record inflation that followed is lingering for consumers, who still feel squeezed by higher prices. Polls show that many of them blame the president who was in office through it all.

Housing costs in particular, which make up some of the largest portions of consumer spending, have remained stubbornly high even as other sectors have cooled down.

Biden has tried to punt the responsibility of high housing costs on corporate landlords, accusing them of “rent gouging,” keeping consumer rents artificially high even as their own costs have come down.

“Folks are tired of being played for suckers,” Biden said in March. “And I’m tired of letting them be played for suckers.”

Hooters said Monday that it’s closing ‘a select’ number of underperforming restaurants, the latest casual dining chain to announce shutdowns amid broader industry woes.

Hooters said that it was ‘under pressure from current market conditions,’ but added that new restaurants continued to open domestically and internationally. It did not respond to an inquiry about the exact number of locations affected.

‘The brand of 41 years remains highly resilient and relevant,’ it said in a statement.

The closings were first reported by National Restaurant News, which said about one-third of all brand-name restaurant chains ended 2023 with fewer locations than they started with.

Eating out in the U.S. faces some crosscurrents. On the one hand, complaints about higher costs at fast-food chains have hurt the fortunes of stalwarts like McDonald’s (whose share pice is down 13% year to date), Burger King and Popeye’s parent Restaurant Brands International (down 9%).

On a recent earnings call, the CEO of Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants said he’s seen some evidence that fast-food diners are switching to casual dining as a result.

Yet this is belied by a wave of closures at casual dining giants like Applebees, which in May said it would shutter at least 35 locations this year; Red Lobster, which is facing bankruptcy; Cracker Barrel, whose stock is down 43% this year; and Outback Steakhouse and its sister chains Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Bonefish Grill, which have seen 41 closings this year.

Overall, restaurant spending has fallen in four of the past six months for the first time since the pandemic began, Census retail sales data shows.

Restaurant cost increases are barely slowing, in contrast with grocery prices. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of ‘food away from home’ has surged more than 25% since the Covid-19 pandemic began and climbed another 4% in May compared with just 1% growth for groceries.

A recent survey by consultant group KPMG found that 41% of consumers said they plan to spend less on restaurants this summer compared to last summer — with only 21% saying they would spend more. On average, consumers said they would reduce their monthly spend on restaurants by 9% — more than any other category.

“Consumers are tightening their belts another notch as they hunt for discounts, and even some essentials are being impacted,’ Duleep Rodridgo, KPMG’s U.S. consumer and retail sector leader, said in the study. ‘We have already seen a few retailers lower prices, as they look to maintain the balance between their margins and demand.’

Novo Nordisk on Monday said it will spend $4.1 billion to build a new manufacturing plant in Clayton, North Carolina, in a bid to boost the supply of its blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy, diabetes treatment Ozempic and other injectable therapies. 

Demand for Wegovy and Ozempic has outstripped supply over the last year, spurring intermittent shortages in the U.S. and forcing the Danish drugmaker to invest heavily to increase its manufacturing footprint. The company said it plans to invest $6.8 billion in production this year, up from roughly $4 billion last year. 

The new manufacturing facility will be responsible for filling and packaging syringes and injection pens for the drugs, according to a company release. 

An Ozempic injection pen.David J. Phillip / AP

“This investment really gives us the opportunity to serve more patients,” Doug Langa, Novo Nordisk’s head of North American operations, said in an interview. “Importantly, I think the other key message here is it’s further investment in the U.S., so I think we’re very proud of that.”

Construction of the 1.4 million-square-foot facility has begun and is expected to be completed between 2027 and 2029, Novo Nordisk said. The company said 1,000 workers will staff the site, adding to the 2,500 employees already working at its three existing manufacturing plants in North Carolina. 

That includes two sites that are already operational in Clayton — one responsible for fill and finish work and another dedicated to producing the active ingredient in the company’s diabetes pill Rybelsus. The company also has a site in Durham, North Carolina, responsible for manufacturing and packaging oral drugs and another facility in West Lebanon, New Hampshire.

Twelve other production sites are located in Denmark, France, China, Japan, Algeria, Brazil, Iran and Russia, according to a Novo Nordisk spokesperson.

Three lower doses of Wegovy are currently in shortage in the U.S. due to high demand, according to a Food and Drug Administration database. Patients start Wegovy with lower doses and gradually increase the amount every four weeks until they reach a target dosage.

Wegovy is an injectable prescription weight loss medicine. Michael Siluk / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Wegovy and Ozempic are part of a class of medications called GLP-1s that mimic hormones produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate their blood sugar.

Around 35,000 U.S. patients on average start Wegovy each week today, up from roughly 27,000 in May, a Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in a statement. Still, Langa said the company is being “very purposeful” about how many lower doses it is releasing into the U.S. market to ensure patients who have already started taking Wegovy can continue treatment with higher doses.

Rival drugmaker Eli Lilly has also committed billions of dollars to increase manufacturing capacity for its popular GLP-1s for weight loss and diabetes, Zepbound and Mounjaro. The company similarly has several production plants in North Carolina. 

A company responsible for producing ice cream products for several popular brands, including Hershey’s, Jeni’s and Friendly’s, has issued a recall because some of its products may be contaminated with Listeria.

In a notice posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s website, Totally Cool Inc. said it had already ceased production and distribution of the affected products after the agency’s sampling revealed the presence of Listeria cells.

Listeria is a bacteria that, when ingested, can lead to mild gastroenteritis and fever, but in more vulnerable populations can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections.

The affected products include:

No illnesses have been reported. The company said it is continuing its investigation and is taking preventive actions.

A full list of the recalled products can be found on the FDA’s website here.