His Fifteen Minutes Are Up
This past weekend, a former president of the United States posted on social media a comment saying, in general, if he wasn’t reinstated as president despite the certified 2020 election [...]
No Nonsense November
We’ve made it to November, meaning one more month until winter arrives here in North America and summer returns to South America. Before we get there, though, the US has [...]
The Gamblers’ Secret 2022
Feel free to sing along with me: “Every gambler knows that the secret to survivin’ is knowin’ what to throw away and knowin’ what to keep. ‘Cause every hand’s a [...]
Seasons Change
Well, we’ve suddenly reached September 1. Not only has the calendar changed, but the season as well. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer of 2022 is just a memory as [...]
Define China
I know Monday is a US holiday, the day set aside to remember the thirteen colonies’ Declaration of Independence from Britain. The Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July [...]
Spread Those Cattle
One of the unwritten rules when you get into the profession of analyzing and talking about commodities is you always have to be bullish cattle. I don’t know why that [...]
King Corn is Still Bullish
Something has been gnawing at me for a long time now. While I still view my calculation of month-end available stocks-to-use for the various grain markets as far more accurate [...]
Fundamentally Speaking
One of the major media outlets has a division devoted to talking about agriculture. And in that division it has a reporter who has been all around the world and [...]
Spring Forward
As you know, I frequently reference my late friend and long-time CBOT floor reporter Gary Wilhelmi. While working in the newsroom, part of my job was to visit with Gary [...]
Tipping Over
As usual, this week’s topic reminds me of a story. A long time ago when I was a youngish commodity broker, I did a producer meeting with our local grain [...]
Aisle, Middle, or Window
For many years, as I made the rounds of winter meetings and farm shows, I mostly flew Southwest Airlines. This is not an endorsement, but a statement of fact as [...]
China, Chosin, and Chernobyl
Like much of the rest of the world, and roughly half of the United States, I watched and listened to what President Biden had to say while announcing sanctions against [...]
Let Slip the Dogs of War
It’s early Sunday morning here in the United States, and as I start the process of this Column, on the other side of the world the Closing Ceremony of the [...]
Back in the USSR
We all watched as the probability of Russia invading Ukraine increased last Friday, with markets across the board responding as if it was the first time trading algorithms had seriously [...]
Corn and Porn
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I studied to be a lawyer. One of the books for required reading was “The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court” [...]
Quantum Leap
“Hello, it’s me. I’ve thought about us for a long, long time…” Those of you of a certain age will recognized those words as the opening line from the song [...]
My Transitory Thoughts on Inflation
Inflation remains a hot topic with financial analysts sounding a lot like the old Bud Light “Tastes great!”, “Less filling” commercials as they argue over the terms “transitory” and “permanent”. [...]
The Madness of King Corn
My original plan for this Weekly Column was to write about how high input costs was going to change North American planted acres in 2022. But then I saw where [...]
The Capital
I’m putting aside my planned column on the socialist system that is the US grain industry. I spent most of the week pointing out the stupidity of the argument USDA [...]
Das Kapital
This past week I had a conversation with a good friend in the cattle industry, and I’ve been thinking about something he said ever since. I knew immediately it would [...]
2021: A Space Odyssey, Part 1
The recent run of dry weather, with some areas of the United States also experiencing extended summer warmth, has accelerated early harvest progress. By the time you read this it [...]
Hillary, Walter, and John
I’ve been working on this column for nearly two weeks. Every time I started to make headway, I would come upon a question I couldn’t answer, and I recalled fondly [...]
Wind of Change
Those of you who have been with me through the years will recall I’m an advocate of Chaos Theory. I was first introduced to the idea by James Gleick’s definitive [...]
Hail Caesars!
As the Ides of March saw the passing of the torch from Julius Caesar to Caesar August back in 44 BC, every year since 8 BC has seen midnight between [...]
Dog Days Ahead
August is known for a number of things; Being named after Caesar Augustus, the birth month of many famous folks through the ages (A short list including William Clark (1) [...]