We’re making stuff

Today’s economic barometer is manufacturing and the The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, is reporting that manufacturing in the U.S. is at its highest level since last June.

It also bucks the trend of some recent reports — including out of Chicago — that raised the possibility that the economy is starting to fizzle again.

“We think the latest recovery is made of sterner stuff, although we doubt it will set the world alight,” Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note, Reuters reports.

Good news? Probably, although it won’t help the problem we’re having at the gas pump. Speculators pushed the price up today figuring it’ll mean a higher demand.

With so many factories shut down and so much work moved overseas, it’s easy to think there’s little manufacturing taking place in the country anymore.

But a new installment of a PBS series disputes that notion.

Watch Introduction to Manufacturing on PBS. See more from America Revealed.

The series continues tomorrow night on PBS.