World Perspectives

Trade, Payrolls and Productivity

Imports and exports both declined steeply in January, driven by two key temporary factors. Meanwhile, like a plow horse, the progress in the labor market didn't stop for bad weather in February.A number of economic reports were issued this past Friday. Below is a summary:Trade: Imports and exports both declined steeply in January, driven by two key temporary factors. First, oil prices plummeted in January. The average price per barrel of crude petroleum imports fell 20 percent, the largest drop since the panic in late 2008 and early 2009. Second, labor disputes at West Coast ports helped reduce non-petroleum trade. For example, the total number of inbound and outbound containers fell 20 percent at the Port of Los Angeles and 24 percent at t...

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From WPI Consulting

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.

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