Federal Reserve Bank

Following record sales in 2021, the rural land market is continuing to surge this year. This offers opportunities for both sellers and buyers of farm, recreational and other rural land, according to Whitetail Properties Real Estate.

Due to the highest inflation rate in 40 years, the Federal Reserve this week hiked interest rates to the tune of 0.5%, the largest single rate hike since 2000. Historically, the Fed raises or lower rates by 0.25%.

Record-low mortgages below 3% are long gone. Credit card rates will likely rise. So will the cost of an auto loan. Savers may finally receive a yield high enough to top inflation.

Concerns over tighter margins despite higher crop prices were common across the Federal Reserve districts in the latest Beige Book survey.

Based on the performance of the stock and commodity markets this week coupled with the action and words of the Federal Reserve and a major voice on Wall Street, an inflection point is at hand.

A few days ago, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was asked if the United States was headed for a recession due to the soaring gasoline prices, raging inflation and higher interest rates.

Agriculture reports were somewhat mixed across Federal Reserve districts in the latest Beige Book report, as farmers look ahead to planting season.

It’s the choices we make in the good times, the grandson of a Kansas homesteader once told me, that determine our farming successes, not the choices we make in the bad times.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was and is the major story around the globe. For farmers and grain markets, the Feb. 24 invasion adds uncertainty and volatility to global grain markets already roiled by weather issues and worries over fertilizer prices and supplies.

The state of Illinois farmland values will be the focus of the 2022 Illinois Farmland Values Conference scheduled for March 17 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Bloomington.

Economic activity across the United States expanded at a modest pace in the final weeks of 2021, and while farm incomes were elevated last year, agricultural conditions were marred by drought conditions across several Federal Reserve districts.

A dominant market force in the new year will be volatility or, if you will, wild price swings. All markets, stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities will be roller-coaster-like regarding values.

I enjoy a full larder, a comfortable heated home, safe transportation and family and friends I love that love me right back. What else could I possibly need? World peace, of course, but I have limited expectations in that area.

Prices for U.S. consumers jumped 6.8% in November compared with a year earlier as surging costs for food, energy, housing, autos and clothing left Americans enduring their highest annual inflation rate in 39 years.

The future of biofuels is a complicated topic. “I’m very confident biofuels will play an important role in our global energy future, but I expect it to be a bumpy ride,” said Scott Irwin, Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois.