The Obscenity Test
know, I spent the latter part of last week traveling to and from the Quad Cities area. I had been invited to speak at the Rock Island County Farm Bureau [...]
Summer Road Trip
I will be taking to the road this summer to participate in Barchart’s Grain Merchandising and Technology Roadshow. I’ll be talking markets in Ames, Iowa on July 22 and Manhattan, [...]
What Was It All For
I write this piece early Sunday morning, June 22, before global markets open yet after the supposed bombings of Iranian nuclear facilities by US B-2 stealth bombers. As is always [...]
Down and Out
This past week felt like a month. By the time we arrived at Friday’s close, the hullabaloo surrounding the March 31 USDA nonsense was a distant memory. And it had [...]
Mr. Newsom Goes to Washington
Some of you have been with me long enough to remember my early days at DTN. The company was on its way to the top of the ag media industry [...]
Opium and Hobgoblins
Later today, January 10, 2025, USDA will release its annual data dump that includes monthly grain supply and demand guesses, annual crop production (the “final” numbers until changed again), quarterly [...]
Happy Newton-mas
Anyone who has seen the classic holiday cartoon “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is familiar with the scene when Linus takes the podium, says “Lights please”, and proceeds to tell the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Forward Thinking
If you’ve been paying attention to ag media recently, you know talking about futures spreads and forward curves has become “cool”, much more so than it was 18 months ago. [...]
Private Tours
Those of you who have followed me over the years are familiar with my belief that data collection, organization, and dissemination should be privatized. This is based on the age-old [...]
Wheat Is on the Table
As I’ve said many times over the last couple months, everything we do from here on out constitutes a “new normal”. A case in point is last week’s Kansas wheat [...]
Life Below Zero
“After all, we are dealing with a new normal.” That’s how I ended my Weekly Column, “Rule #6”, this past weekend, and it rings even truer Monday afternoon following a [...]
Take a Breath
Something doesn’t feel right. The world seems to be crumbling all around us, but is it really? Is the keyword in all that “seems”? And if so, would we not [...]