Kickstart: Want some suspenseful summer reading? Try the economic news

In the summer of 2022, the hottest beach read may be the news feed from your favorite news source, or at least that's what Plastics News Economics Editor Bill Wood says.

With the Federal Reserve expected to raise interest rates again this week, economics news is especially high profile. But while some fiscal details are known — like global inflation — others are hard to define. Other plot points from the summer are downright confusing.

Normally in a recession, if that's what we're really in at this point, you would see unemployment rates climbing and a decline in spending, Wood said during the July Numbers That Matter Live webcast July 26. Instead, employers are still having problems finding enough workers to fill open jobs while sales for many industries — with key exceptions like electronics and housewares — remain strong.

"Here's the crux of it," he said. "It's almost impossible in real time to discern between a slowing economy and a recession. The line when it crosses over into recession is not sharp and distinct. Some industries hit it and they're already in recession. ... Some are good."

You can get more of Bill's take on the economy, as it currently stands, by watching the replay of the webcast. It's free for PN subscribers.

The potential use of plastics in automotive front-end systems for future electric and automous vehicles has been at the center of product development and mergers and acquisitions such as Faurecia's purchase of lighting system Hella to create Forvia.

But it's not just about the front end.

Global supplier Magna International Inc.'s "breakthrough lighting" concept takes that same combination of sensors, lighting and molded-in styling and focuses it at the rear of the car.

Magna has been producing thermoplastic liftgates for nearly 10 years and twice has been behind two Society of Plastics Engineers auto innovation awards for them — for the 2014 Nissan Rogue, which took the top honor, and the 2019 Jeep Cherokee, which won the award for the top exterior.

Researchers think they've clearly found a better way to collect solar energy.

A team at the University of Michigan has developed semitransparent organic solar cells that fit on plastic film, which is then put into an inner layer in windows. That means that a homeowner can potentially add a solar energy array far easier than either an external rigid panel or rooftop systems.

Electrical engineering professor Stephen Forrest and his group have been looking at ways to create a manufacturable organic solar array film program that would collect solar energy in a window for 30 years.

As it is now, the greenish tint to the film would make them more suitable to office windows, but the team believes it is possible to improve the transparency. Forrest said a commercial program is possible within a few years.

"The research we are doing is derisking the technology so that manufacturers can make the investments needed to enter large-scale production," Forrest said in a news release.