Congress Complicit in War The word to the wise is to watch what others do and not what they say, and that is especially true when it comes to politicians. Democrats and Republicans both say they lament the Trump trade war, but instead of stopping it, they are enabling it to continue. Without the trade mitigation payments being made to farmers, support for Mr. Trump would plummet in rural America. The payments are being made via $30 billion worth of discretionary authority in the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Act. Congress has the power to stop it by refusing to replenish the fund. Instead, the Congress last year included language in the spending bill that gave the CCC more flexibility to keep the money flowing. Notably, when the pres...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.