This is a list of vignettes about the most consequential politician of our times. Donald Trump is not complicated if one just reads the rants of his opponents, of which there is a lengthy list. But as the journalist Matthew Continetti says, “Trump criticism is an oversaturated market.” No one disagrees that tariffs are harmful and free trade is good, that norms are being broken, and that Constitutional law should prevail. But there have been tariffs, there has been unfair trade, and Mr. Trump is not the first politician to push the limits of law. Mr. Trump’s predecessor refused the courts’ rejections of his student loan forgiveness plans and he rejected enforcement of immigration laws as just some recent exampl...
With no bullish surprise out of Beijing this week and good weather taking over many global crop areas, funds spent the past couple of days selling off the peak positions they had built. CNN’s Live Updates blared, “No signs Trump and Xi resolved any thorny challenges.” By...
The long-awaited meeting between President Trump and President Xi of China has concluded, and details are elusive, though Trump stated today that he and Xi made some “fantastic” trade deals. Both countries reported the meetings as a success, but that has more to do with positioning...
We at WPI hear frequently that U.S. agriculture is broken and needs fixing. This argument is often heard in MAHA-related discussions and focuses on highly processed food consumption or the overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Among farmers and food processors, however, especially tho...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.