World Perspectives

Recent Policy Analysis

Divergence of Markets; Fear No Beer; Little Net Gain

Divergence of Markets Food away from home has been outpacing food at home as the cost of human services has written. The categories on the rise include meat, eggs, produce, and alcohol. Food prices are unlikely to descend and even food price discounter Walmart has struggled to restrain what the...

Unbridled Confidence; Good Governance

Unbridled Confidence As President Trump’s tariffs were about to go into effect on Canada and Mexico, a farmer representative gave assurance that they would not go into effect. He was confident that there would be a deal. Now the January Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer on...

Agencies and Buildings; Reactions to Tariffs; USMCA Civil Disobedience

Agencies and Buildings Donald Trump’s flurry of actions to upset the status quo in Washington is upsetting bureaucrats, but perhaps not Democrats. When your opponent is digging a hole to fall into, get out of the way. As Steven Englander of Standard Chartered framed it, “He seems to...

Tariff Follies Begin; Ludicrous Lutnick; Hill-arious Committee Picks

Tariff Follies Begin There is playing from strength, like having the leverage of oversized trade deficits, and then there is overplaying one’s hand. Blanket 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico for ephemeral reasons fentanyl and immigration, two things Mr. Trump cannot even control in...

Transatlantic Uncertainty

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that the Administration is still on track to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico this Saturday, unless they take undefined steps on immigration and drugs, and the President is still thinking about imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chin...

WTO Epiphany; Trump Treats Ag Horribly

WTO Epiphany Keith Rockwell is a trade policy professional. The lead spokesman for the WTO for many years, he was a cheerleader for the new world order and the opportunities it presented. He emphasized the importance of reaching agreement at each successively failed WTO ministerial. But Rockwel...

Trump Orders Freeze on Federal Grants and Loans, Including Ag Spending

Yesterday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circulated a memo that directed federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.” The memo states that “in Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10...

Un-Whole of Government; Apex Predator; Heavy Lift

Un-Whole of Government President Trump’s memorandum last week announcing his America First Trade Policy (AFTP) was issued to five federal departments, two of which are only tangentially involved in trade policy. It skipped over the federal department overseeing more than six percent of U...

Rollins Confirmation Hearing

As Gary Blumenthal reported yesterday, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Brooke Rollins to be Secretary of USDA. As Gary noted, she “rolled” through the hearings “poised, confident, charming” and had done the groundwork as...

Rollins Rolled; Cluelessness at the Top

Rollins Rolled Poised, confident, charming - USDA Secretary-Designate Brooke Rollins hit the trifecta today at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee. She mostly just needed to show that she supported U.S. agriculture. After all, Donald Trump won over 98 percent of the...

Transatlantic Tariffication; Biofuel Battles

Transatlantic Tariffication President Trump’s bromance with big tech billionaires has refocused his attention on Europe. The large penalties and regulatory hurdles being imposed by Brussels on America’s ANTMAMA (Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon) are being fram...

Day One Trump Executive Orders

Shortly after his swearing-in as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump signed a slew of Executive Orders (EO) putting the wheels in motion for his policy agenda. EOs are signed, written, and published directives from the President regarding the operations of the federal governme...

Divergence of Markets; Fear No Beer; Little Net Gain

Divergence of Markets Food away from home has been outpacing food at home as the cost of human services has written. The categories on the rise include meat, eggs, produce, and alcohol. Food prices are unlikely to descend and even food price discounter Walmart has struggled to restrain what the...

Unbridled Confidence; Good Governance

Unbridled Confidence As President Trump’s tariffs were about to go into effect on Canada and Mexico, a farmer representative gave assurance that they would not go into effect. He was confident that there would be a deal. Now the January Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer on...

Agencies and Buildings; Reactions to Tariffs; USMCA Civil Disobedience

Agencies and Buildings Donald Trump’s flurry of actions to upset the status quo in Washington is upsetting bureaucrats, but perhaps not Democrats. When your opponent is digging a hole to fall into, get out of the way. As Steven Englander of Standard Chartered framed it, “He seems to...

Tariff Follies Begin; Ludicrous Lutnick; Hill-arious Committee Picks

Tariff Follies Begin There is playing from strength, like having the leverage of oversized trade deficits, and then there is overplaying one’s hand. Blanket 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico for ephemeral reasons fentanyl and immigration, two things Mr. Trump cannot even control in...

Transatlantic Uncertainty

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that the Administration is still on track to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico this Saturday, unless they take undefined steps on immigration and drugs, and the President is still thinking about imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chin...

WTO Epiphany; Trump Treats Ag Horribly

WTO Epiphany Keith Rockwell is a trade policy professional. The lead spokesman for the WTO for many years, he was a cheerleader for the new world order and the opportunities it presented. He emphasized the importance of reaching agreement at each successively failed WTO ministerial. But Rockwel...

Trump Orders Freeze on Federal Grants and Loans, Including Ag Spending

Yesterday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circulated a memo that directed federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.” The memo states that “in Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10...

Un-Whole of Government; Apex Predator; Heavy Lift

Un-Whole of Government President Trump’s memorandum last week announcing his America First Trade Policy (AFTP) was issued to five federal departments, two of which are only tangentially involved in trade policy. It skipped over the federal department overseeing more than six percent of U...

Rollins Confirmation Hearing

As Gary Blumenthal reported yesterday, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Brooke Rollins to be Secretary of USDA. As Gary noted, she “rolled” through the hearings “poised, confident, charming” and had done the groundwork as...

Rollins Rolled; Cluelessness at the Top

Rollins Rolled Poised, confident, charming - USDA Secretary-Designate Brooke Rollins hit the trifecta today at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee. She mostly just needed to show that she supported U.S. agriculture. After all, Donald Trump won over 98 percent of the...

Transatlantic Tariffication; Biofuel Battles

Transatlantic Tariffication President Trump’s bromance with big tech billionaires has refocused his attention on Europe. The large penalties and regulatory hurdles being imposed by Brussels on America’s ANTMAMA (Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon) are being fram...

Day One Trump Executive Orders

Shortly after his swearing-in as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump signed a slew of Executive Orders (EO) putting the wheels in motion for his policy agenda. EOs are signed, written, and published directives from the President regarding the operations of the federal governme...

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