One of my favorite reads every week is Dan Barkin’s Tuesday report in the Business North Carolina Daily Digest, for gems like this:

“There were 44% fewer manufacturing jobs in our state last year than in 1990. Some of the decline was automation, some of it was due to competition from low-wage countries like China. American consumers benefited, but many North Carolina towns didn’t.”

And for quotes like this one from Matt Bogoshian, executive director of the American Manufacturing Communities Collaborative:

“The great news for manufacturing in the United States is that four big bills got passed in the last couple of years: The American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.”

Thanks, President Biden!

Those four big bills are breathing new life into American manufacturing. Republicans in Congress voted against the bills, but are eager to be on camera and claim credit when the dollars start flowing in their states and districts.

You can subscribe to the Daily Digest for free. You’ll get an excellent summary of the state’s business news – and Dan’s report.

Dan (pictured) is from Boston, born “not far from Fenway Park.” But he got here as soon as he could and married a schoolteacher from Clinton. They live in Clayton and have two children and two little grandchildren.

He came to Raleigh as business editor at The News & Observer in 1996, and worked there until 2018, retiring as managing editor.

He says, “After I retired from the N&O, I started writing for Business North Carolina and that has gotten me back to why I got into journalism in the first place, which was to meet interesting people and tell their stories.”

He tells the stories well.

I’m glad to share great news about the economy – and a great source for news.