A major power conceding in a war usually takes many years and horrific losses. The undeclared war by the U.S. against North Vietnam lasted 20 years and took the lives of over 58,000 Americans as well as more than a million Southeast Asians. The Cold War lasted more than four decades and only ended due to the economic implosion of the Soviet Union. Trump’s trade war with China will similarly not end soon. This is in part practical since retreat means no change in China’s state-run mercantilist behaviors. Thus, the only real question is how to best mitigate the war’s cost. The Trump administration will reportedly write another check to agricultural producers, reportedly up to $20 billion, which is in addition to the $12 bil...
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
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.