We previously reported on the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) baseline budget projections (see WPI 3 February 2012), noting that the CBO report projects both revenue and spending to increase: spending by 53 percent and revenues by 125 percent.Additionally, with regard to agriculture, CBO indicates that mandatory spending for agricultural support was $15 billion in 2011. If current farm programs remain in place after the 2008 Farm Bill expires this year, this amount is projected to average $16 billion each year between FY 2012-2022.Today we take a closer look at the assumptions in the baseline.CBO estimates outlays from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to be $9.4 billion in 2013 and approximately $94 billion from 2013-2022, with...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Key Market Insights Geopolitical Limbo: Geopolitical risk remained a key driver across global commodity markets today. President Trump stated that the Iran memorandum of understanding is not yet final and warned that military action could resume if negotiations fail. Both sides continue w...
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.