Fiscal Cliff: Maytagged But Not Ended The fiscal cliff will be breeched. This is inevitable given that politicians in Washington during these final days are sparring in a blame game rather than an end game. This is occurring because it is not actually a cliff. For whitewater kayakers, one gets "ended" when one end of the boat goes straight down, leaving the vessel vertical and stationary in the water. Instead, the politicians are likely to get "maytagged," meaning they will be thrashed about in rough waters over the next few weeks, like being inside a clothes washing machine. At this juncture, there is no perceived path past the two parties' philosophical thresholds. Democrats know that Republicans will be under immense pressure and rece...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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...
WPI Grain Prices and Freight Rate App Note: you can also visit the app directly by clicking here. Supplemental Information The section below offers a concise view of the options available in the current version of the WPI FOB Price and Freight Rate app, along with a short “How To”...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk freight markets are higher this week as activity in Asia and off the ECSA picks up. President Trump extended the Jones Act waiver for another 90 days this week, allowing foreign-flagged vessels to transport oil and other goods between U.S. ports. A container...
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.