Now that the government has reopened, Congressional Budget Committee Chairmen Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) and Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) have begun the process of creating a budget plan that must be completed by 13 December. If the bicameral budget process does not work, then a second sequester will be imposed by 15 January 2014. The first sequester took place on 3 January 2013 as part of the Deficit Control Act of 2011. That legislation provided budget targets for Congress to meet and would trigger an across the board sequester if those targets were not met. This means, whether overtly or covertly, much of the budget committees' efforts will be channeled into exempting certain types of spending from the sequester. The...
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.