Baffling Trade Policy Trade policy aficionados in Washington are scratching their heads over some parts of President Obama's recent announcement. These include:
Georgia FTA: A free trade agreement with Georgia? There was some speculation that it related to the Tbilisi government's decision to end its blockade of Russia's entry into the WTO. In other words, the U.S. wanted Russia's entry and had to do something for Georgia to make it happen. But then President Obama's reference to Russia's entry in his State of the Union address was oblique at best: "And this Congress should make sure that no foreign company has an advantage over American manufacturing when it comes to accessing financing or new markets like Russia." He made no specif...
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...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
