Matthew Klein (Barrons) and Michael Pettis (Peking University) have authored the book, Trade Wars are Class Wars. In it, they argue that countries like Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland run trade surpluses because their domestic policies leave consumers with less disposable income, forcing their manufacturers to seek consumers elsewhere. With Germany specifically they contend that through tax increases on workers, spending cuts on public investment, and social welfare programs, consumers get squeezed and import demand gets suppressed. Looking at the Gini index for income distribution in countries and their trade surplus/deficit, this assertion does not hold up. The U.S. has the largest trade deficit but ranks worse for income distribution...
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...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.