While Russia had amassed $630 billion in foreign exchange reserves, its removal from SWIFT, the freezing of its overseas assets, and sanctions on its banks will nonetheless collapse the value of the ruble. At present, banks are not providing an exchange value though an app in Russia says it has fallen to 150 rubles/dollar, versus 83 rubles on Friday and 63 back in January. However, history suggests a much worse situation is approaching. At the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ruble sank to 5,560₽/dollar. Moscow had tried previously to fix the ruble at 5₽/dollar, but the market didn’t recognize it. Even worse, when the Bolsheviks took over in 1917, they refused to pay the bond holders of the previous regime’s debt and the ruble...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
We have described the long-term investment climate in crop and livestock production, using data primarily from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The data provided background on the current investment climate and outlook for agricultural capital formation. Our conclusion was that investment...
Yesterday, the USDA released its monthly World Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), forecasting tighter beef and pork supplies and growing broiler supplies, resulting in a tighter red meat supply. Broiler production, however, continues to grow and is forecast to be up more than 3 percent. Beef...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.