One of the most contentious parts of the massive and controversial Dodd-Frank financial market reform legislation passed by Congress in 2010 is the so-called Volcker Rule by which commercial banks with customer deposits insured by the FDIC are prohibited from proprietary trading in much of anything with the intent of profiting from such trading. The idea is to prevent banks from using customer money to "speculate" in financial instruments, commodities or other assets so that any losses suffered would not be covered by FDIC, which is to say, taxpayers. Banks would also be prohibited from owning or investing in hedge funds. The rule was named after one of its strongest proponents, Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve.There...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Unlike the 2022 fertilizer shock, today’s disruption is rooted less in rerouted trade flows and more in damaged production capacity, raw material constraints and uncertain recovery timelines. That makes this a longer-duration risk for U.S. agricultural producers and retailers who must sec...
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.