Business News
Automation pays back on the second shift
The robot-versus-worker math changed — not because robots got cheap, but because tariffs and wages moved the goalposts.
Monica Cummings · May 6, 2026
Business News
Business news from the production economy: manufacturer and industrial results, plant investment and expansion announcements, contract awards, supplier insolvencies, freight and logistics capacity, and input price moves. Each item states the downstream effect on customers and competing producers. For procurement teams, industrial analysts and operators watching their supply base.
Business News
Steel premiums quietly raise construction bids
The gap between domestic and imported metal prices shows up months later in project budgets — and someone always eats it.
Monica Cummings · April 14, 2026
Business News
Supplier diversification has a real price
Every company says China-plus-one; the honest ones know the second source costs money before it saves anything.
Monica Cummings · March 22, 2026
Business News
Earnings calls became tariff accounting
Companies now quantify duty costs to the penny for investors — and the language they use tracks the policy cycle quarter by quarter.
Monica Cummings · February 27, 2026
Business News
Import front-running bent the data
Companies bought ahead of tariff deadlines in 2025, and the inventory and trade statistics are still echoing the sprint.
Monica Cummings · February 4, 2026