Ag Policy
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Financial Stress Remains Muted
The Kansas City Federal Reserve issues a monthly report on their index of the US Financial Stress. The most recent one issued on August 8, 2012 had an index level of -.13 essentially unchanged from the June level of -.11. Negative levels indicate that there is less stress than a normal level of 0 and […]
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How Does High Grain Prices Affect “Elevator” Risks
Another slide that I found very interesting from the AG Symposium was the total estimated monies needed for grain purchase and hedging by commercials for corn, wheat and soybeans. The chart provided the actual amounts needed for the 2006-07 marketing year to the 2011-12 year and then provided an estimate of the worst case in […]
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Additional Thoughts on the KC Fed AG Symposium
Continuing our post from yesterday: During the last 10 years, the world has planted an extra 184 million acres to the 10 ten major row crops. The Black Sea area has added 48, South America 42 and China 31 million acres. The US has only added 8 million acres. Total acres in production has increased […]
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Thoughts from the KC Fed 2012 Agricultural Symposium
The Kansas City Federal Reserve held a Ag Sympoisum on July 16, 2012. The presentations are available on their website, but I thought I would recap some of the interesting things I found in reviewing the presentations. William Hudson of the ProExporter Network had a presentation entitled “What Lies Beyond the Horizon for Farm Income? […]
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Smithfield Foods to import corn from Brazil
Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, said Tuesday it will import corn from Brazil. This is most likely a result of Brazil soybeans being cheaper to import by ship than to transport them by rail to the East Coast. Also, in another report, it appears the Southern Brazil crush operators may run out of […]
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Building US Ag Exports – One BRIC at a Time
We periodically quote publication issued by the Kansas City Federal Reserve. Last month, they issued a report entitled “Building U.S. Agricultural Exports: One BRIC at a Time”. The report is only 10 pages long, but has a lot of good information. Here is a recap of what I found interesting: A chart showing the amount […]
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How to Pick a Futures Broker!
In response to the bankruptcy filing of Peregrine Financial Group this week and the MF Global filing last year, these are some of red flags to watch out for in picking a broker (or continuing) to handle your futures trading and hedging: Review the financial information that is available regarding the financial health of the […]
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That Did Not Take Long!
The Senate failed today to limit debate on their small business tax bill after (as usual) Democrats and Republicans disagreed about proposed amendments to the bill. The Senate voted 73-24 to table the Republican-favored amendment containing the text of the House-passed small business bill (H.R. 9) that would have provided for the 20% small business deduction […]
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White House Proposes Increasing Section 179 Deduction in 2013 to $250,000
The White House just announced several initiatives today including increasing the Section 179 deduction for 2013 from the current $25,000 amount to $250,000. This will require Congress to update the law to reflect this amount, so the change of this happening is not certain. However, the mood of Congress and the President is to help […]
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Senate Bill 2237 Appears to be on the Fast Track
Due to the last three lackluster monthly jobs reports, the Senate appears to be trying to fast track Senate Bill 2237 “Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act” to passage. This bill provides the following: A new income tax credit equal to 10% of the excess compensation paid in 2012 over 2011. These compensation levels […]