Lighthizer Prevails U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer is one of four prominent names mentioned to become the next White House chief of staff, but word is that he is too important in negotiating with the Chinese to leave his current post even if it would be for a more important position. Lighthizer has not always been the top trade negotiator for President Trump, but he proved this past weekend why he has prevailed in the jockeying for the role. The USTR is structured as the government’s top official for trade negotiations, but this president initially spread the responsibility around. However, Lighthizer’s competitors have all fallen from grace due to their inexperience and failure to read the boss. After maki...
What You Need to Know Today: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured reelection on Sunday, defeating right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro despite trailing in the first round of voting. The surprise victory triggered a sharp selloff in Brazilian financial market...
The 2026 midterm elections are a week from tomorrow, but early voting has been taking place for weeks. At stake is control of Congress, including the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are contested, and the Senate, where approximately one-third of the seats are up for election. Farm...
Key Takeaways: Total U.S. crop acres (excluding hay) are forecast to expand fractionally this year due to greater oilseed crop and winter wheat plantings. One of the key drivers of this year’s crop outlook is input costs, and crops with a lower cost profile have an advantage in producers...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.