Land use change has gotten complicated. Tracking changes in climate have added more than simply physical changes in land use. The first step in understanding the more sophisticated land use change implications is to understand what land is changing. The … Continue reading →
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that used cars are losing value faster than they have been. The term negative equity was discussed. In the article, car owners were required to settle their loan prior to the full term, … Continue reading →
The first 15 years after high school were spent chasing windmills, because in those early years of adulthood, all the answers were obvious. Go to college and become smart enough to change the world (age 18 to 22). Save the … Continue reading →
Farm management focuses on business decision making for the business unit of the farm. But access to external cash-flows from off-farm income takes some pressure off the total dependence on the success of the farm business unit. Farm Enterprise Analysis … Continue reading →
Biomass Rules seeks out examples of increased efficiency and utilization. This means businesses and economies produce more output from fewer inputs. We have focused our work in research and innovation the last four decades on either developing an innovation, or … Continue reading →
Biomass Rules Blog students who were working ahead on last week’s crude oil and corn price comparison likely hit an impasse when downloading the monthly corn price data from USDA. The USDA, National Ag Statistics Service (NASS), Quick Stats monthly … Continue reading →
Biomass Rules takes inventory of locally available, undervalued wastes, and finds higher valued markets through which move these once-upon-a-time liabilities back into the economy. Sometimes straw may be a feedstock into feed, fertility or biofuel products. Biomass Rules is the … Continue reading →
The last few years have been an inflationary roller coaster. On September 26, nearly 50 years of US inflation was used to illustrate HOW NOT TO USE inflation (spurious correlation). Part of understanding what charts of inflation actually mean, is … Continue reading →
It is an election year, and the number of charts showing the economy-wide influences by a single factor are up. A recent chart making a thin claim about the cause of inflation struck me as a similar rhythm to my … Continue reading →
Moving averages are the most basic tool, taught in undergraduate courses as an introduction to forecasting. Prior to the pandemic, commodity futures charts were the go-to illustration of the benefits of moving averages for undergraduate students. Moving averages smooth out the … Continue reading →
