President Obama signed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on 22 July 2010. Known simply as Dodd-Frank after its principal authors, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), it was the Obama administration's response to the U.S. financial crisis of 2008/09. This was passed by Congress in the midst of the deep recession that followed the financial meltdown and from which the U.S. is still slowly recovering. It is a massive 2,000 page piece of legislation that includes 898 pages of statutory text. At the time of the vote, the joke around Capitol Hill was that no member of Congress including its authors had read the entire bill. Whether or not this was precisely true we cannot say, but we doubt many mem...
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...
Markets are getting into the Halloween spirit, handing out more tricks than treats. There has been some encouraging news, but it hasn’t been enough to slow the broader slide. Now buyers need to show up with something other than another “Charlie Brown” rock for the bag. Somethi...
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.