The staff at Modern Applications News would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a very Happy New Year!
After a year of watching endless campaign ads, more investigations, contentious hearings, and migrant caravans, we hope you're able to tune out the outside noise and spend some quality time with your family and loved ones over the holidays.
For the 2nd straight year, the economy provided some of the best news. GDP growth returned to the plus side of 3% while unemployment and consumer confidence continued their march to positive records. The manufacturing industry is ending the year on an encouraging note as the USMTO just reported that the latest two-month total for orders was the highest in program history. In addition, the Institute for Supply Management's index just came in at a robust 59.3%.
We believe the machine tool/metalworking industry will continue to play a vital role in this healthy economy. With Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing, Robotic Automation, Digital Manufacturing, and Artificial intelligence setting new trends in the industry, the outlook for 2019 is bright.
The same remains true for us here at Nelson Publishing. Our eNewsletters -- Modern Applications News (MAN), Tooling & Production (T&P), and the Manufacturing Center Product Spotlight continue to grow. MAN begins its 52nd year in January while T&P embarks on its 84th year of serving the machine tool industry!
In what has become our annual tradition, we have put together our "Best of 2018" issue. We have compiled two lists -- the Top 10 Most Read Features and Top 10 Most Read Product Spotlights, as judged by our readers. We hope you enjoy these stories and catch some helpful information you may have missed the first time around. Again, we want to thank you for your loyalty to our publications and we'd like to wish you a successful and prosperous 2019!