Scott Irwin's Blog, page 2

A Random Walk in the Classroom

If you ask students who have taken my commodity price analysis class at the University of Illinois the one thing they remember most, it is almost always the coin flipping … Read More Test

Warming Holes

My colleague, Michael Roberts of the University of Hawaii, recently started a new Substack blog called “Grains to Gigawatts.” His first post is an important one for grain markets and … Read More Test

The March of Productivity

Agricultural productivity gains are the reason why famine and starvation are rare in the modern world. As agricultural economists like to say, problems with malnourishment are much more problems of … Read More Test

What Do We Know About USDA Reports?

If you want to get a rise out of a farm audience, just mention USDA reports. To people outside of ag this is mystifying. Why would something as unexciting as … Read More Test

Intersections

As I noted in a post a couple of weeks ago, I took a sabbatical leave from Ohio State for the 1993/94 academic year. I spent my leave here … Read More Test

How Do Futures Markets Develop?

It would seem that the answer to the question posed in the title is simple. Futures markets develop because there is a need for the risk-shifting and price discovery functions … Read More Test

A Timeless Classic

In my long career as an agricultural economist, one of the things that I take most pride in may surprise you. I am holding it on the left in this … Read More Test

Old School

Last week, my department head Sarah A. Low dropped this jewel of a picture off at my office. It was in some old files that were being cleaned out.

This … Read More Test

There They Go Again

If you wonder why I spent so much time the last few years writing two books focused on speculation in commodity futures markets (my wife certainly does), then look no … Read More Test

Going Over the Cliff

An interesting new article from Reuters on the current travails of the US renewable diesel industry was published this week. The article is not only informative, but it is also … Read More Test