Brooke Sutherland

Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies. A former M&A reporter for Bloomberg News, she writes the Industrial Strength newsletter. Boeing rival Airbus is sold out of its competing A320 narrow-body planes into the 2030s, and no new aircraft design is expected until then, either. The grounding of a Boeing Max variant after a fuselage section came apart midair on an Alaska Airlines flight adds to the planemaker's long list of problems FedEx is indicating it doesn't need as many pilots as it used to, but they can't just automatically switch to the airlines, some of which have their own staffing issues. CEOs of manufacturing companies are in the mood to spend on M&A and capital investments in 2024. Near-term economic realities are challenging, but the prospect for long-term growth appears solid. The $14.9 billion takeover will force the government to evaluate what truly constitutes a revival in domestic manufacturing. Manufacturers are experimenting with ways to accommodate parents to meet their hiring needs. What was a narrative of rising tides is increasingly becoming more about which specific boats float or sink when the economic waters become choppier. Regulators will take a hard look at Alaska Air's $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian, but it's the only real route for growth. Fostering the kind of manufacturing labor force that the US needs starts with rethinking how the country measures and values educational outcomes. While record passenger traffic is expected over Thanksgiving, weaker demand outside the holidays has left airlines with empty seats. A supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and the US can't build semiconductors without chemicals. A lack of blockbuster deals this year masks a flurry of smaller ones worth millions of dollars instead of billions. The decision-making on multimillion-dollar factory investments is governed more by economic practicalities than governmental interests. The growing rate of hacks at industrial companies is an unpleasant byproduct of a surge of investment in digital connectivity.