An Urban's Rural View

The U.S. has a rich, open market, a government that borrows heavily and the world's reserve currency. That's why the long run never seems to arrive for the buck.

Examining the argument for refocusing the trade war with China on reciprocity in technology restrictions.

The economy could be headed for inflation, even stagflation, and if it gets there, higher interest rates are the likely result.

A reorganization of the government the administration is considering would dilute agriculture's influence in Washington.

Thoughts on advances in agricultural technology and the role they've played in the story of civilization.

Companies producing plant-based "meat" products have attracted big-name investors and won praise from critics and space in the meat case at some grocery stores and on some fast-food menus.

The U.S. may agree to lift sanctions on ZTE in exchange for China retracting its big tariffs on U.S. ag products, but the reprieve for producers is likely to be temporary.

Judging from what the Trump administration's EPA has been up to, it's not too early for corn farmers to wonder about future demand for ethanol.

The outcome of the Trump-Kim talks has the potential to trigger a chain reaction that would affect U.S. ag exports.

Would rejoining TPP take the sting out of retaliatory tariffs from China?

The U.S. is signaling Japan it wants a bilateral trade deal. The Japanese are signaling they want the U.S. to return to the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership. It's an exchange of signals with real consequences.

The first press conference of the new Federal Reserve Board chairman hints at the Fed raising interest rates higher than it was forecasting under his predecessor.

The last real trade war 80 years ago probably did not turn a recession into the Great Depression but it did hurt exporters. So could a trade skirmish today, which is why agriculture is right to be concerned.

The nomination of Iowa's agriculture secretary to a top USDA post was put on hold for four months by a Texas senator bent on gutting ethanol blending. We discuss Senate holds, and the advantages and disadvantages of checks and balances more broadly.

Chipotle Mexican Grill built its marketing around attacks on competitors' reliance on conventional agriculture for ingredients. Now it's hiring a CEO who comes from one of those competitors.

Pundits have had little to say about the president's recently announced willingness to reconsider the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Maybe they don't know whether to take him seriously.

Michael Lewis's book "The Undoing Project" goes a step beyond his "Moneyball" and explains how and why experts sometimes get things wrong.

The fundamentals are bearish for the dollar, and while a declining dollar is good for ag exports, it isn't an unalloyed blessing.

Inflation is picking up, and while prices are still rising at rates central bankers consider safe, some economists are starting to worry.

Startling statistics show that increasingly it's rural areas and small towns rather than big cities that are dogged by social problems.