There has been a lot of commentary about the Fed hinting at phasing down quantitative easing (QE) since last week, when the Fed acknowledged it may be considering doing just that sometime next year. The general commentary is that money was too easy, and now the Fed will put on the brakes and tamper down growth. However, to come to such a conclusion, one would have to believe that QE was effective and money was easy. A quick look back at the last decade, five before the Fed started easing in 2008 and five after, shows two different stories.First, QE did dramatically increase the monetary base -- the most liquid currencies. The monetary base includes currency in the hands of the public and the commercial bank deposits in the central bank's re...
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...
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.