Tripping Up Shipping The shelves are not bare before Christmas, but somethings remain in short supply. Political success means saving the day and some dream of an intervention in the global shipping industry. This is especially true for U.S. agricultural exporters who complain that containers are returning empty overseas and leaving their products stranded on the docks. Conscious of this frustration and the system of political rewards, John Butler of the World Shipping Council urged against an effort to “fight the market” with regulatory schemes when the limit is landside infrastructure. James Hookham of the Global Shippers Forum complained that the problem is national transport policy existing in “narrow modal sil...
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.