Congress is back in session, and one of the first orders of business will be to confirm several new Cabinet members, including the following:
Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) as Secretary of State. Kerry was the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee and has been a foreign policy confidante of President Obama. He is of equal profile to replace Secretary Hillary Clinton. It would have been difficult to replace Clinton with a diplomat because Clinton was perceived to have a broader, deeper political perspective in addition to the president's attention. At the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the replacement is less clear. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is leaving after serving all four years of Obama's first term. As our t...
What You Need to Know Today: Cattle futures extended their sharp selloff Friday as weakening cash cattle prices, deteriorating feedlot profitability, and reduced packer demand continued to weigh on the market. The inability of futures to sustain a rally following last week's bullish Cattle on...
As predicted, the Federal Reserve held rates steady at the last meeting before the midterm elections, likely in part because of the election (see WPI 19 October and 22 September). The decision comes at the tail end of a midterm election cycle that has been marked by the two parties campaigning...
Key Takeaways: The tariff burden rose sharply in 2025 and 2026: the effective rate on imports in HTS Chapters 1–24 increased from 1.53 percent in 2024 to 6.11 percent in 2025, before averaging 5.68 percent in January–August 2026. Headline rates tell only part of the story: exemptio...
