Q1 GDP Comes in Low, Interest Rate Expected to Stay High
The Q1 2024 GDP was 1.6 percent, well below the pre-report consensus expectation of 2.4 percent, and down from 3.1 percent in Q1 2023 and 3.4 percent in Q4 2023. That rate was the slowest in almost two years, dating back to Q2 2022. Recall that in the 2 February Ag Perspectives report on...
U.S. Consumer Spending, Financial Health Supports 2024 Economic Outlook
As WPI readers likely well know by now, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an inflation- and seasonally-adjusted 1.6 percent rate in Q1 2024, which missed economist’s 2.4 percent expectations. The data sent shockwaves through U.S. financial markets with U.S. stocks and bonds openin...
Most Apparent Solution; Future is Biotech
Most Apparent Solution The EU’s organic sector wants the bloc’s officials to take more action to ensure they achieve the target of 25 percent of agricultural output being organic by 2030. Specifically, they want a campaign to increase consumer demand for organic food so that organic...
Reigniting a Transatlantic Deal; Indian Powerhouse; “Barons” is Bombastic
Reigniting a Transatlantic Deal Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta is something of a policy rock star after authoring a report on the future strategy for the EU. Most of the 146-page report focuses on strengthening the EU’s internal Single Market but, buried at the end of th...
Hecho en Mexico; Radical for Small; Impeach Tai?
Hecho en Mexico While outgoing Mexican president and populist AMLO tries to shutdown American farmers, the U.S. government just keeps giving to Mexico. The de minimis duty is about to go away. The personal free import allowance is complex. Most American citizens reentering the country think of...
Trading Waste; Ottawa versus Manila; Politician’s Lag
Trading Waste Rich Westerners consumed so much plastic that even though landfills take much of it, their export of plastic waste now overwhelms Asia. Then Western policymakers gave yellow grease (used cooking oil) a very low carbon score for use as energy since it is a form of recycling. With h...
Transatlantic GI’ing Consumers; Political Expediency, Oh My
Transatlantic GI’ing Consumers Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic protest big business and their sacrilegious capitalism. Yet sometimes it is government screwing the consumer to boost private profits. Parmigiano Reggiano was a prized and premium priced cheese before obtaining the E...
Biden-Trump on Trade Policy
A Washington International Trade Association discussion on trade policy with former officials from both the Trump and Biden administrations reinforced the bipartisan agreement on some trade policies. A day after House GOP representatives slammed USTR Katherine Tai for the Biden Administration&r...
Supply Chain Diversity; Clean Hands?; Bipolar Politics
Supply Chain Diversity EU policy experts have assembled a tome on the “State of Food Security in the EU.” The biannual report focuses on how to ensure food security in times of crisis. The authors highlight the growing concerns about extreme adverse weather events in the EU. They lo...
Sparks to Fly; Selective Competitiveness; Fixing India
Sparks to Fly U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai appears before House and Senate committees this week to testify on the Biden Administration’s 2024 trade policy. Over the past three years, the Office of U.S. Trade Representative has slow walked trade policy changes, focusing on labor...
Higher Interest Rates to Stay
This week’s inflation reports have added some turbulence to the Federal Reserve’s approach to bringing the economy in for a soft landing. The Fed started an unprecedented set of rate hikes to the federal funds rate in Q2 2022 that helped tame inflation through Q3 2024. T...
Wrong at the Top; Happy Talk
Wrong at the Top We admit as private policy analysts that sometimes we add 1+1 and get three. It turns out top government officials can make the same mistake. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack had mused aloud that China could be buying Brazilian corn and not U.S. corn in retaliation for state-level re...
Q1 GDP Comes in Low, Interest Rate Expected to Stay High
The Q1 2024 GDP was 1.6 percent, well below the pre-report consensus expectation of 2.4 percent, and down from 3.1 percent in Q1 2023 and 3.4 percent in Q4 2023. That rate was the slowest in almost two years, dating back to Q2 2022. Recall that in the 2 February Ag Perspectives report on...
U.S. Consumer Spending, Financial Health Supports 2024 Economic Outlook
As WPI readers likely well know by now, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an inflation- and seasonally-adjusted 1.6 percent rate in Q1 2024, which missed economist’s 2.4 percent expectations. The data sent shockwaves through U.S. financial markets with U.S. stocks and bonds openin...
Most Apparent Solution; Future is Biotech
Most Apparent Solution The EU’s organic sector wants the bloc’s officials to take more action to ensure they achieve the target of 25 percent of agricultural output being organic by 2030. Specifically, they want a campaign to increase consumer demand for organic food so that organic...
Reigniting a Transatlantic Deal; Indian Powerhouse; “Barons” is Bombastic
Reigniting a Transatlantic Deal Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta is something of a policy rock star after authoring a report on the future strategy for the EU. Most of the 146-page report focuses on strengthening the EU’s internal Single Market but, buried at the end of th...
Hecho en Mexico; Radical for Small; Impeach Tai?
Hecho en Mexico While outgoing Mexican president and populist AMLO tries to shutdown American farmers, the U.S. government just keeps giving to Mexico. The de minimis duty is about to go away. The personal free import allowance is complex. Most American citizens reentering the country think of...
Trading Waste; Ottawa versus Manila; Politician’s Lag
Trading Waste Rich Westerners consumed so much plastic that even though landfills take much of it, their export of plastic waste now overwhelms Asia. Then Western policymakers gave yellow grease (used cooking oil) a very low carbon score for use as energy since it is a form of recycling. With h...
Transatlantic GI’ing Consumers; Political Expediency, Oh My
Transatlantic GI’ing Consumers Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic protest big business and their sacrilegious capitalism. Yet sometimes it is government screwing the consumer to boost private profits. Parmigiano Reggiano was a prized and premium priced cheese before obtaining the E...
Biden-Trump on Trade Policy
A Washington International Trade Association discussion on trade policy with former officials from both the Trump and Biden administrations reinforced the bipartisan agreement on some trade policies. A day after House GOP representatives slammed USTR Katherine Tai for the Biden Administration&r...
Supply Chain Diversity; Clean Hands?; Bipolar Politics
Supply Chain Diversity EU policy experts have assembled a tome on the “State of Food Security in the EU.” The biannual report focuses on how to ensure food security in times of crisis. The authors highlight the growing concerns about extreme adverse weather events in the EU. They lo...
Sparks to Fly; Selective Competitiveness; Fixing India
Sparks to Fly U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai appears before House and Senate committees this week to testify on the Biden Administration’s 2024 trade policy. Over the past three years, the Office of U.S. Trade Representative has slow walked trade policy changes, focusing on labor...
Higher Interest Rates to Stay
This week’s inflation reports have added some turbulence to the Federal Reserve’s approach to bringing the economy in for a soft landing. The Fed started an unprecedented set of rate hikes to the federal funds rate in Q2 2022 that helped tame inflation through Q3 2024. T...
Wrong at the Top; Happy Talk
Wrong at the Top We admit as private policy analysts that sometimes we add 1+1 and get three. It turns out top government officials can make the same mistake. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack had mused aloud that China could be buying Brazilian corn and not U.S. corn in retaliation for state-level re...