Much of the fate of the 2013 farm bill comes down to the disposition of the House Republican leadership's proposal for food stamps, officially named the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The plan is likely to face a vote on Thursday or Friday of this week. As may be recalled, the House version of the farm bill failed in a vote this summer largely on the SNAP proposals in that measure. The plan cut SNAP by $20.5 billion over 10 years and included a number of substantive reforms, including a work requirement for certain recipients. The opposition to the language came from both sides: several House Democratic members who perceived the cuts to be too deep and several House Republicans who considered the cuts inadequate. The Ho...
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: Dry bulk markets are mixed with Capesize rates seeing solid gains while Panamax values slipped on a growing tonnage list. Supramax and Handysize vessels were stronger, though all sectors remain vulnerable to the seasonal dip in rates through Q4 and into Q1. Falling water l...
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.