Troy Mix

Manufacturing remains critical to Kent economy While Delaware’s economy has seen ebbs and flows based on trends, manufacturing has remained a steady force to the First State’s identity – especially in Kent County.

"Freight rail is emerging as a strategic advantage [for Kent County, Delaware] with some industrial sites coming online soon along the railway"
delawarebusinesstimes.com/insider-only... #netde #econdev

Why Aston have hope for the future despite early struggles Aston Martin have admitted they are not where they want to be following the first 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain, but there's still plenty of hope for the team's future ambitions.

I've been an @astonmartinf1team.bsky.social fan since Christmas. I've feeling plenty hopeful
www.formula1.com/en/latest/ar...

Farmers Are Aging. Their Kids Don’t Want to Be in the Family Business. A fifth-generation farmer stares down a future in which his land is no longer tended by someone in the family. It’s new territory for everyone.

"there are more farmers 75 and older than under the age of 35, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture"
www.wsj.com/business/fam...

Govstream.ai: AI Solution for Smarter Permitting & Faster Approvals Streamline your permitting process with Govstream.ai’s AI-powered solutions. Eliminate confusion, reduce delays, and accelerate approvals. Request a demo today.

"Louisville, Kentucky, announced Wednesday it has partnered with Govstream.ai for a pilot program to streamline the city’s permitting and development process with artificial intelligence."
www.constructiondive.com/news/ai-perm... #AI

Anthropic Economic Index: new building blocks for understanding AI use Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.

"tasks with prompts requiring a high school education...were sped up by a factor of 9, while those requiring a college degree...were sped up by a factor of 12"
www.linkedin.com/redir/redire... #AI

"Successive administrations—Democratic and Republican—have suspended leases, slow-walked reviews, introduced new regulatory hurdles, revoked approvals, or outright refused to act. The logic of reprisal has escalated the battle."
open.substack.com/pub/thebreak...

Remote Work's Impact on Productivity Why Startups Thrive while Big Companies Struggle with Remote Work

"remote work is not uniformly good or bad: but the productivity effects vary substantially by age. Startups do well with remote work, while established companies struggle."
open.substack.com/pub/arpitrag... #remotework

#EconDev dots to connect for Delaware this week:🚢
Hanwha Philly Shipyard & the push for US shipbuilding⚡Energy tradeoffs: #offshorewind stalls while Bloom Energy soars 🚗
Geely's search for a US site—opportunity for DE? Read the full breakdown ⤵️ open.substack.com/pub/firststa...

Manufacturers plan price hikes over reshoring to combat tariff effects Industry leaders are displaying “slight optimism” for next year, with increased projections for revenue and capital spending as trade uncertainty settles, according to ISM’s Supply Chain Planning Fore...

"64% [of manufacturers surveyed] don’t intend to bring production to the U.S. to avoid tariffs costs...noting that for many manufacturers it’s still cheaper to go offshore or diversify into a different geographic area." #econdev via Manufacturing Dive www.manufacturingdive.com/news/manufac...

Exclusive | U.S. Shipyard Key to Trump’s American Revival Is Already Too Busy The Philly Shipyard’s new South Korean owner is in talks to potentially make U.S. naval vessels. But first, it says it needs more space.

Hmm, Delaware is in the Philly region: "To accommodate more volume, Hanwha is in active discussions with multiple federal, state and local officials about opportunities to expand capacity and property for storage around the Philadelphia region"
www.wsj.com/business/u-s... #econdev #shipbuilding

Billions at Stake in the Ocean as Trump Throttles Offshore Wind Farms

"In its abrupt Dec. 22 announcement, the Trump administration halted work on all five wind farms currently under construction off the East Coast. They are collectively worth $25 billion and were expected to power more than 2.5M buildings and create around 10k jobs." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/c...

JERA Nex BP shuts down US offshore wind operations JERA Nex BP, the offshore wind joint venture between BP and Japan’s JERA, announced it will wind down its U.S. operations after determining there is “no viable path for development”

"For vessel operators, contractors, and port developers, the retreat of a major player like BP signals another setback for offshore wind construction activity along the East Coast" via #offshorewind #logistics @workboat.bsky.social www.workboat.com/jera-nex-bp-...

"This is a jobless boom...The economy is growing at a rapid rate, due largely to the AI boom and spending by wealthy Americans...But there is almost no hiring right now and that has caused many Americans to feel stuck and anxious" open.substack.com/pub/economyh... via @byheatherlong.bsky.social

"What’s Wrong with NIH Grants?" #innovation #progress via open.substack.com/pub/statecra...

Chinese Carmaker Geely Looks at Expanding in the U.S. The automaker, which expects to make an announcement within 24 to 36 months, could make the first major moves selling Chinese brands in the U.S.

South Carolina is too crowded with auto assembly plants, come to Delaware: "@GeelyGroup hasn’t yet sought out a production site in the U.S....but suggested that Volvo’s assembly plant in South Carolina could be a prospective location." www.wsj.com/business/aut... #econdev via @WSJ

The Pentagon and A.I. Giants Have a Weakness. Both Need China’s Batteries, Badly.

"tech giants are looking to buy billions of dollars of large lithium-ion batteries, a field in which 'China is leading in almost every industrial component,' said Dan Wang...'They’re ahead, both technologically and in terms of scale.'" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/c... #industrialpolicy

How Google Got Its Groove Back and Edged Ahead of OpenAI After ChatGPT dominated the early chatbot market, Google staged a comeback with a powerful AI model. It also launched the biggest search-engine overhaul in years.

The long-game pays: "Google’s deep roots in science and research, willingness to pour billions of dollars into developing custom hardware, and leadership changes in recent years that cleared the way for faster experimentation are now paying off" www.wsj.com/tech/ai/goog... #AI

"Translating exposure into employment outcomes, Goldman's baseline forecast implies that about 6–7 percent of jobs are displaced over the full AI adoption period. Again, that’s meaningful disruption, sure, but hardly mass extinction." #AI #economics fasterplease.substack.com/p/dont-expec...

Their Professors Caught Them Cheating. They Used A.I. to Apologize.

I welcome all apologies from students as I walk the path of social media domination www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/u...

Manufacturers plan price hikes over reshoring to combat tariff effects Industry leaders are displaying “slight optimism” for next year, with increased projections for revenue and capital spending as trade uncertainty settles, according to ISM’s Supply Chain Planning Fore...

"Manufacturers are planning to pass along cost increases and raise sales prices as input costs rise due to tariffs"
www.manufacturingdive.com/news/manufac...

✨ "Only about 40 percent of today’s workers are employed in jobs that existed 85 years ago. Goldman argues AI will repeat this process: eliminating some tasks, transforming many jobs, and spawning new roles that are fiendishly difficult to predict in advance." open.substack.com/pub/fasterpl...

Unitree's Big Humanoid Robots Are Fighting Now Chinese robotics company Unitree has revealed its much larger humanoid robot, the H2, can fight. We dig into all the hidden details in the company's latest demo videos.

Opening up my Christmas list for one more item www.cnet.com/tech/computi...

Opinion | This Is No Way to Rule a Country

"Rather than replace democracy with A.I., we must instead use A.I. to reinvigorate democracy, making it more responsive, more deliberative and more worthy of public trust."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...

NFL quarterbacks over 40 are winning again — and no one saw it coming “They’re going to keep winning games. He’s exactly what they needed there.”

In related news, I found my misplaced laptop charger this evening.
"NFL quarterbacks over 40 are winning again — and no one saw it coming" www.nytimes.com/athletic/673...

Amazon Plans to Replace More Than Half a Million Jobs With Robots

"Amazon executives believe the company is on the cusp of its next big workplace shift: replacing more than half a million jobs with robots."
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/t...

"U.S. Economic Development Administration is discontinuing funding for the University Centers, Trade Adjustment Assistance to Firms, and STEM Talent Challenge programs"
ssti.org/blog/among-r...

U.S. Warehouse Vacancies Steady as Demand Rises With Less New Space The amount of vacant warehouse space in the U.S. held steady around an 11-year high in the third quarter, but it didn’t expand for the first time in three years as demand rose and the amount of newly ...

"amount of vacant warehouse space in the U.S. held steady around an 11-year high in the third quarter, but it didn’t expand for the first time in three years as demand rose and the amount of newly built space continued to fall"
www.wsj.com/articles/u-s...

Exclusive | A Devastating Fire at a Major Ford Supplier Will Disrupt Business for Months The Novelis plant supplies about 40% of aluminum sheet used in the auto industry.

As an #UpstateNY native, I'm obligated to report all national news from Oswego:
"A late-night fire leveled a key part of a New York aluminum plant in hours. Its absence is going to disrupt business at Ford and other automakers for months to come."
www.wsj.com/business/aut...

Evaluating the Impact of AI on the Labor Market: Current State of Affairs

"metrics indicate that the broader labor market has not experienced a discernible disruption since ChatGPT’s release 33 months ago, undercutting fears that AI automation is currently eroding the demand for cognitive labor'
budgetlab.yale.edu/research/eva...

Joseph Politano (@josephpolitano) Census financial data released today shows the AI investment boom reaching new record highs—information technology companies have increased their net holdings of property, plant, & equipment by more t...

"the AI investment boom [is] reaching new record highs" substack.com/@josephpolit...