World Perspectives

While Swinging for the Fence

Early reactions to President Trump’s tariff war are as expected. Major foreign trading partners are expressing shock and assuring Washington that if there is no negotiated settlement, there will be an appropriate response. Domestic pundits emphasize this is a tax on American consumers and it will hurt the U.S. more than other countries. The latter implies the trade playing field is level though no one says it outright.  One pundit pointed out that Americans are richer and implied maybe it was due to low tariffs, but never asked why do other countries keep their consumers poor with higher border measures? The global economic system is built on Americans importing a lot and so there will be pain. Some U.S. corporations are import d...

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Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.2975/bushel, up $0.025 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $5.3575/bushel, up $0.08 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.3/bushel, up $0.13 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $320/short ton, up $2.9 from yester...

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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.

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