State of the Union (SOTU) addresses are often eloquent speeches that rarely do more than bolster supporters and irritate detractors. Last night's version by President Obama was no exception, but read on anyway! For aggies and trade, the one substantive contribution was the president placing the official imprimatur on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union. Confidence remains low that it will significantly lower regulatory barriers, but those will be a highline focus in the negotiations. And this initiative comes from a President who campaigned in 2008 very skeptically about free trade agreements.Most of the rest of the economic components of his presentation are likely negligible in effect. Some aggies wo...

TAGS – Energy