Last week the first swap transactions were required to be cleared at central clearinghouses to decrease systemic risk in the swap markets under Dodd-Frank. However, there are a number of provisions yet to be settled. There are now seven proposals before the House Agriculture Committee that provide changes to Dodd-Frank. At a hearing on Thursday, the committee heard testimony about these issues, including the swaps push-out rule.The swaps push-out rule prohibits any federal assistance from being provided to "swaps entities," including registered swap dealers, security-based swap dealers, major swap participants and major security-based swap participants. Federal assistance is defined to include Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
What You Need to Know Today: Harvest pressure in the U.S. sent corn and soybeans lower as supplies increased and there were signs USDA’s upward revisions to yields in the October WASDE could be close to right. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated over the weekend, with Ukrai...
Developer's Note 24 August 2026: WPI recently completed an exercise that updated the codebase for this app and solved some of the discrepancies between our five-year average calculation and USDA's. There are a few lingering cases where early (late) starts (finishes) to the crop cycle resu...
From WPI Consulting
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.