22 Things Economic Developers Need to Know This Week
The stories Dane thinks you need to see. April 11, 2024 edition.
Welcome to this week's issue of What Economic Developers Need to Know This Week, where we explore the evolving dynamics of our economy.
This week we have 22 tools, stories, graphics, charts, and videos that I think you'll find informative, useful, inspiring, and perhaps even humorous. Some are economic development related directly, and some only indirectly. 🤔
If you're wondering what to do with the info in this newsletter, send something to your board members. It will make you look good!
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1) The NFIB's small business sentiment index hit its lowest level since 2012:
2) It's important to recognize that other small business surveys appear less pessimistic, partially because NFIB members often represent very small companies.
3) 33 life-changing books summarized in 20 minutes
4) From the Site Selectors Guild: The State of Site Selection 2024.
Sitehunt: The Perfect Solution for Small EDOs
Sitehunt is the AI-enhanced platform for building a comprehensive economic development property database and getting them on your website.
Are you a small EDO in a community with less than 20,000 people? Join us this Friday at 11 AM central for a webinar demo specifically for you.
Larger communities? - Request a demo for a different time.
5) US industrial site shortage is driving rural investment.
If only someone created software for rural communities to identify and turn their raw land into industrial sites.
6) How to send progress updates: If you work on anything worthwhile, sooner or later people will care about it and will want you to send progress updates. These could be quarterly investor updates, weekly updates to your boss, emails to adjacent teams, etc. Here are tips on how to do this well.
7) People don't understand affordability requirements: Mandating low-income housing in new developments sounds great but without subsidies, it's a flop. We've known this for decades.
8) Inflation inched back up to **3.5% **in March... and stocks dropped in response.
9) A history of the American economy through 50 years of stadium names:
10) Where does one US tax dollar go?
11) UPS sees big opportunity in Mexico's nearshoring wave: The delivery giant anticipates both financial and efficiency benefits by handling U.S.-destined volume further upstream.
12) The number of 24-hour diners and restaurants in the US fell 18% from 2020 to 2024.
