World Perspectives

Trade Wars and Surrender; Compensating the Victims; African Opportunity

Trade Wars and Surrender With this week’s retaliation announcements by China and the EU, the trade war has begun. Then again, all trade and trade policies comprise the weapons of competitive battle. One hawkish observation is that until now, China has been in a one-sided trade war. However, real war brings death and is coated in euphemisms like “collateral damage” or “boots on the ground” to make it more palatable. Economic competition is the reverse, using a dysphemism like “war” to make aggressive trade or currency competitions sound more serious. This week also brought White House announcement that the diplomat John R. Bolton will be the new national security advisor. Some refute that he is a d...

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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.

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