@Walter Hinteler,
I like proper Budweiser, drank a lot of that in Prague, along with Pilsner Urquell, (which I also got in my advent calendar.)
Investors, farmers left guessing as shutdown delays crop reports
Scott McFetridge, Associated Press Published 1:40 p.m. CT Jan. 5, 2019
DES MOINES — The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Friday that it must delay the release of key crop reports due to the partial government shutdown, leaving investors and farmers without vital information during an already tumultuous time for agricultural markets.
The USDA had planned to release the closely watched reports Jan. 11 but said that even if the shutdown ended immediately, the agency's staff wouldn't have time to release the reports as scheduled. Congressional leaders met with President Donald Trump on Friday but there were no indications the shutdown would end soon.
"The longer it goes on, the more distorted our reference points get," said grain market analyst Todd Hultman, of Omaha, Nebraska-based agriculture market data provider DTN. "It's a lot of guesswork."
The reports detail the size of the 2018 harvests of corn, soybean, wheat and other crops and give an early estimate for what farmers will plant in the upcoming season. Depending on the estimates, the price of the commodities can rise or fall as they show the current supply and forecast how many acres will be devoted to different crops in the coming months.
The government shutdown has now forced the delay of such reports for two weeks, and uncertainty about the commodity supply will only grow as more time elapses, Hultman said. USDA reports provide the foundation for understanding the U.S. agricultural industry, and because they also estimate farm production in other countries, they are essential for understanding global crop markets.
In this Nov. 21, 2018, file photo, Justin Roth holds a handful of soybeans at the Brooklyn Elevator in Brooklyn, Iowa. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it must delay the release of key crop reports due to the partial government shutdown. The announcement Friday, Jan. 4, 2019 left investors and farmers without vital information during an already tumultuous time for agricultural markets. The USDA planned to release the reports Jan. 11 but said that even if the shutdown ended immediately, the agency wouldn't have time to release the reports as scheduled.
In this Nov. 21, 2018, file photo, Justin Roth holds a handful of soybeans at the Brooklyn Elevator in Brooklyn, Iowa. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it must delay the release of key crop reports due to the partial government shutdown. The announcement Friday, Jan. 4, 2019 left investors and farmers without vital information during an already tumultuous time for agricultural markets. The USDA planned to release the reports Jan. 11 but said that even if the shutdown ended immediately, the agency wouldn't have time to release the reports as scheduled. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall/AP)
Although the government is still releasing some information, such as the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, the USDA hasn't released key reports since Dec. 22. This includes the closely watched World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report and information about specific crops, such as winter wheat and canola seedings.
The lack of information comes amid the uncertainty of trade with China, where tariffs led to an abrupt drop in U.S. agricultural exports to the country. There were indications that China was beginning to resume at least limited purchases of U.S. crops, but because of the government shutdown it's unclear what's happening.
"We certainly don't want to be in the dark and miss any big changes like that," Hultman said..
University of Illinois professor Todd Hubbs, who studies agricultural commodity markets, said he finds the report delays especially frustrating because he thinks they could confirm a belief that the U.S. soybean crop was smaller than earlier forecast. If true, that information would mean a smaller supply and could raise soybean prices, helping farmers who have struggled with low prices worsened by the trade dispute with China.
Until the USDA releases its information, investors and farmers can't be certain about where they stand, he said.
"Those kinds of numbers are fundamental," Hubbs said. "When the USDA produces the numbers, they are the numbers. They move markets."
Interference.meddling in the 2016 election was coming from the UK, not Russia:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/01/no_author/the-integrity-initiative-and-the-british-roots-of-the-deep-state-how-the-round-table-infiltrated-america/
Quote:With the nearly weekly revelations that the British Foreign Office, MI6, and GCHQ have been behind the long standing agenda to undermine the Presidency of Donald Trump and undo the peaceful alliance between nationalist leaders in America, Russia, China and elsewhere, a new focus on the British hand in undermining the United States has become a serious thought for many citizens. In the first week of the new year, fuel was added to this fire when internal memos were leaked from the British-run Integrity Initiative featuring a startling account of the techniques deployed by the anti-Russian British operation to infiltrate American intelligence institutions, think tanks and media.
For those who may not know, The Integrity Initiative is an anti-Russian propaganda outfit funded to the tune of $140 million by the British Foreign office. The January 2019 leak, featuring documents dated to the early period of Trump’s election, demonstrate that this organization, already active across Europe promoting anti-Russian PR and smearing nationalist leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn, was intent on spreading deeply into the State Department and setting up “clusters” of anti-Trump operatives. The documents reveal high level meetings that Integrity Initiative Director Chris Donnelly had with former Trump Advisor Sebastien Gorka, McCain Foundation director Kurt Volker, Pentagon PR guru John Rendon among many others..........
My blond sweetie tells me that Russia has more or less gone out of the geopolitical game business and is concentrating on weapons sales, non-GMO wheat, and becoming the capital of the Christian world, i.e. leaving geopolitical games and interference in US politics to the British...
@gungasnake,
Your imaginary sweetie is feeding you disinformation.
@MontereyJack,
You should hope you never meet her, she doesn't like your type....
@gungasnake,
Figures you'd get off on some Pravda stock photo with a big gun.
@MontereyJack,
You plainly wouldn't know a "big gun(TM)" if you ever saw one, that's just a nickel and dime AK of some sort.
@coldjoint,
On the contrary. Clear evidence of how the GOP is becoming demoraphically obsolete as anyone who actually talks to younger people in every walk of life will tell you. Youre obsolete joint.
@coldjoint,
Read the article. Look at the polls and the demographics. Your use-by date expired decades ago.
