Latest news with #ERS
Qatar Tribune
a day ago
- Business
- Qatar Tribune
USDA redaction of trade analysis causes concern about report integrity
Agencies Analysts voiced concerns this week about the integrity of U.S. Department of Agriculture reports after the agency delayed a report and excluded findings that point to tariffs as a reason for a forecasted increase in the agricultural trade deficit, according to Reuters interviews with four analysts. The administration of President Donald Trump has pledged to shrink the farm trade deficit and has said tariffs will strengthen the farm economy, but farm groups have been critical of the agency's delay of a quarterly agricultural trade report and exclusion of its typical explanatory text were concerning because the moves raised questions about the objectivity of the data, two analysts said. 'The trade is uneasy about USDA statistics now,' said Charlie Sernatinger, head of grains with Marex, a brokerage and financial services company. A USDA spokesperson said the report was delayed by an internal review. 'The report was hung up in internal clearance process and was not finalized in time for its typical deadline. Given this report is not statutory as with many other reports USDA does, the department is undergoing a review of all of its non-statutory reports, including this one, to determine next steps,' the spokesperson said. The quarterly trade outlook report jointly published by the USDA's Economic Research Service and Foreign Agricultural Service was scheduled to be released on May 29. Shortly before it was set to publish, its authors were told to stop its release, according to a source familiar with the situation. The authors were then questioned by leaders at the ERS, FAS and USDA Office of the Chief Economist about the report's attribution of the growing agriculture trade deficit to tariffs and sentiments like 'Buy Canadian' that have reduced demand for U.S. goods, the source said. In the delayed report released on Monday, the USDA raised its forecast of the U.S. agriculture trade deficit for fiscal-year 2025 to $49.5 billion, from the $49 billion it previously forecast in February. The version of the report published on Monday contains correct and unaltered data, the source said, but excludes explanatory text typically contained in the report delay and redaction were first reported by Politico. Such trade reports would typically be reviewed by communications and policy staff, but the removal of the explanatory text was highly unusual, according to a second source familiar with the report publication process. Two other analysts said they were confident in the USDA data for now, but expressed concern about how Trump's disruption of the federal government could affect future reports. 'Departures of key personnel limit the ability of agencies to collect and analyze information,' said Patrick Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri. The USDA has lost about 27% of ERS employees and 14% of FAS employees to terminations or voluntary incentives to leave the agency.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
USDA redaction of trade analysis causes concern about report integrity
By Julie Ingwersen and Leah Douglas CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Analysts voiced concerns this week about the integrity of U.S. Department of Agriculture reports after the agency delayed a report and excluded findings that point to tariffs as a reason for a forecasted increase in the agricultural trade deficit, according to Reuters interviews with four analysts. The administration of President Donald Trump has pledged to shrink the farm trade deficit and has said tariffs will strengthen the farm economy, but farm groups have been critical of the approach. The agency's delay of a quarterly agricultural trade report and exclusion of its typical explanatory text were concerning because the moves raised questions about the objectivity of the data, two analysts said. "The trade is uneasy about USDA statistics now," said Charlie Sernatinger, head of grains with Marex, a brokerage and financial services company. A USDA spokesperson said the report was delayed by an internal review. "The report was hung up in internal clearance process and was not finalized in time for its typical deadline. Given this report is not statutory as with many other reports USDA does, the department is undergoing a review of all of its non-statutory reports, including this one, to determine next steps," the spokesperson said. The quarterly trade outlook report jointly published by the USDA's Economic Research Service and Foreign Agricultural Service was scheduled to be released on May 29. Shortly before it was set to publish, its authors were told to stop its release, according to a source familiar with the situation. The authors were then questioned by leaders at the ERS, FAS and USDA Office of the Chief Economist about the report's attribution of the growing agriculture trade deficit to tariffs and sentiments like "Buy Canadian" that have reduced demand for U.S. goods, the source said. In the delayed report released on Monday, the USDA raised its forecast of the U.S. agriculture trade deficit for fiscal-year 2025 to $49.5 billion, from the $49 billion it previously forecast in February. The version of the report published on Monday contains correct and unaltered data, the source said, but excludes explanatory text typically contained in the forecasts. The report delay and redaction were first reported by Politico. Such trade reports would typically be reviewed by communications and policy staff, but the removal of the explanatory text was highly unusual, according to a second source familiar with the report publication process. Two other analysts said they were confident in the USDA data for now, but expressed concern about how Trump's disruption of the federal government could affect future reports. "Departures of key personnel limit the ability of agencies to collect and analyze information," said Patrick Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri. The USDA has lost about 27% of ERS employees and 14% of FAS employees to terminations or voluntary incentives to leave the agency as the Trump administration works to reduce the size and cost of the federal government, according to Reuters reporting. The U.S. had an agricultural trade surplus for decades but in recent years, imports of high-value goods like alcohol, fruits and vegetables have driven a growing deficit, according to USDA data.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
USDA redaction of trade analysis causes concern about report integrity
By Julie Ingwersen and Leah Douglas CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Analysts voiced concerns this week about the integrity of U.S. Department of Agriculture reports after the agency delayed a report and excluded findings that point to tariffs as a reason for a forecasted increase in the agricultural trade deficit, according to Reuters interviews with four analysts. The administration of President Donald Trump has pledged to shrink the farm trade deficit and has said tariffs will strengthen the farm economy, but farm groups have been critical of the approach. The agency's delay of a quarterly agricultural trade report and exclusion of its typical explanatory text were concerning because the moves raised questions about the objectivity of the data, two analysts said. "The trade is uneasy about USDA statistics now," said Charlie Sernatinger, head of grains with Marex, a brokerage and financial services company. A USDA spokesperson said the report was delayed by an internal review. "The report was hung up in internal clearance process and was not finalized in time for its typical deadline. Given this report is not statutory as with many other reports USDA does, the department is undergoing a review of all of its non-statutory reports, including this one, to determine next steps," the spokesperson said. The quarterly trade outlook report jointly published by the USDA's Economic Research Service and Foreign Agricultural Service was scheduled to be released on May 29. Shortly before it was set to publish, its authors were told to stop its release, according to a source familiar with the situation. The authors were then questioned by leaders at the ERS, FAS and USDA Office of the Chief Economist about the report's attribution of the growing agriculture trade deficit to tariffs and sentiments like "Buy Canadian" that have reduced demand for U.S. goods, the source said. In the delayed report released on Monday, the USDA raised its forecast of the U.S. agriculture trade deficit for fiscal-year 2025 to $49.5 billion, from the $49 billion it previously forecast in February. The version of the report published on Monday contains correct and unaltered data, the source said, but excludes explanatory text typically contained in the forecasts. The report delay and redaction were first reported by Politico. Such trade reports would typically be reviewed by communications and policy staff, but the removal of the explanatory text was highly unusual, according to a second source familiar with the report publication process. Two other analysts said they were confident in the USDA data for now, but expressed concern about how Trump's disruption of the federal government could affect future reports. "Departures of key personnel limit the ability of agencies to collect and analyze information," said Patrick Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri. The USDA has lost about 27% of ERS employees and 14% of FAS employees to terminations or voluntary incentives to leave the agency as the Trump administration works to reduce the size and cost of the federal government, according to Reuters reporting. The U.S. had an agricultural trade surplus for decades but in recent years, imports of high-value goods like alcohol, fruits and vegetables have driven a growing deficit, according to USDA data. Error al recuperar los datos Inicia sesión para acceder a tu cartera de valores Error al recuperar los datos Error al recuperar los datos Error al recuperar los datos Error al recuperar los datos
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nebraska's ERS Real Estate Group Brings $170M in Production and Big Vision to eXp Realty ERS juggernaut joins eXp Realty with plans to reshape the real estate experience through its Elite Real Estate Systems LLP
Nebraska's ERS Real Estate Group Brings $170M in Production and Big Vision to eXp Realty BELLINGHAM, Wash., May 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- eXp Realty®, 'the most agent-centric real estate brokerage on the planet™' and the core subsidiary of eXp World Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPI), today announced the addition of ERS Real Estate Group, the residential arm of Omaha-based Elite Real Estate Systems LLP (ERS). Co-founders Jeff Cohn and Renee Mueller are leaders of the 53 agents who closed $170 million in sales volume across 575 units in 2024. Previously known as kwELITE, ERS Real Estate Group was affiliated with Keller Williams from 2011 through early 2025. Over the past decade, the group built a reputation as one of the most tech-forward, production-driven teams in the Midwest — and now they're poised to take that success to the next level with eXp Realty. This move is more than a high-producing team change — it's part of a sweeping vision to integrate all aspects of the homeownership experience. Following a $70 million merger with investment firm Good Life Capital, ERS is launching a comprehensive real estate ecosystem that includes not only traditional brokerage services but also mortgage, title, insurance, and a suite of home services such as solar, security, pest control, and more. 'Today marks a monumental shift,' said Jeff Cohn, Co-Founder and CEO of Elite Real Estate Systems. 'By merging with Good Life Capital and partnering with eXp, we're accelerating our vision to connect every homeowner and tenant with every service they need – in a smarter, faster, and more seamless way than ever before.' To power this next chapter, Good Life Capital and ERS are building a fintech platform slated to launch in fall 2025. The platform will integrate mortgage, insurance, title, CRM tools, digital payments, and secure transaction management — all enhanced by AI and designed to simplify the homeownership lifecycle from start to finish. For ERS, eXp Realty's cloud-based model offers the perfect foundation to scale nationally while tapping into a network of forward-thinking agents and brokers. 'Good Life Capital brings the investment strength, eXp brings the reach, and we bring the vision,' said Renee Mueller, President of Elite Real Estate Systems. 'Together, we're building something real estate has never seen before.' eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja praised the alignment between ERS' vision and eXp's innovation-driven culture. 'ERS Real Estate Group represents exactly the kind of forward-thinking leadership we're proud to welcome to eXp,' said Pareja. 'Jeff, Renee, and their team are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in real estate, and their vision for an integrated, tech-enabled future is one we fully support and are excited to help amplify.' About eXp World Holdings, Inc. eXp World Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPI) (the 'Company') is the holding company for eXp Realty® and SUCCESS® Enterprises. eXp Realty is the largest independent real estate brokerage in the world, with over 81,000 agents across 27 international locations. As a cloud-based, agent-centric brokerage, eXp Realty provides real estate agents industry-leading commission splits, revenue share, equity ownership opportunities, and a global network that empowers agents to build thriving businesses. For more information about eXp World Holdings, Inc., visit: SUCCESS® Enterprises, anchored by SUCCESS® magazine, has been a trusted name in personal and professional development since 1897. As part of the eXp ecosystem, it offers agents access to valuable resources to enhance their skills, grow their businesses, and achieve long-term success. For more information about SUCCESS, visit Safe Harbor and Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements reflect the Company's and its management's current expectations but involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could impact actual results materially. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding international expansion, individual agent success, and the availability of equity ownership programs. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in forward-looking statements include real estate market fluctuations, changes in agent retention or recruitment, the Company's ability to expand successfully in international markets, competitive pressures, regulatory changes, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the most recently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K. We do not undertake any obligation to update these statements except as required by law. Media ContacteXp World Holdings, Investor RelationsDenise Garciainvestors@ A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
New Statesman
17-05-2025
- Politics
- New Statesman
The Kiwi who wants to fix Britain
Illustration by Eva Bee/Ikon 'Undemocratic, obscure, unfair and crazy.' That was David Cameron's assessment of the Alternative Vote system ahead of the 2011 referendum on changing the way Britain chooses its governments. Despite the pleas of the Liberal Democrats, the electorate agreed with him and rejected the proposal to abandon first past the post (FPTP) for a form proportional representation (PR) by 67.9 per cent to 32.1. According to Cameron, it was a 'resounding answer that settles the question'. 14 years later, the question looks far from settled. The British electorate has been fragmenting. The General Election of July 2024 marked the first time four parties – Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Reform – each received at least 10 per cent of the vote share. This was not a blip: not only did the Greens join the 10 per cent club in May's local elections, according Professor John Curtice's projected national vote share, but for the first time in a century a party other than Labour or the Conservatives came top. 'Five parties getting 10 per cent of the vote in a two-party system is mind-blowing from a psephological point of view,' says Darren Hughes, when we meet in a coffee shop in London Bridge two weeks after the locals to discuss what this all means for UK politics. 'People are voting as though they already have proportional representation… What are we saying, that voters are wrong to want this many preferences? That they're making mistakes? Good luck to the politician who gets up and says that!' This is the kind of sentiment one might expect from Hughes. He is chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), where he has spent over a decade campaigning to change Britain's voting system. The ERS has been making the case for the UK to switch from FPTP to a more proportional model since 1884. But their efforts have failed to change the hearts and minds of Britain's political class: the UK and Belarus remain the only countries in Europe to use a purely FPTP system for general elections. The recent past has challenged the conventional wisdom that FPTP produces strong, stable and decisive governments. Voters are becoming less tribal and more 'politically promiscuous' (to borrow a phrase from the New Stateman's data expert Ben Walker). The combined vote share of the two main parties has (with some exceptions) been trending downwards. Seemingly strong parliamentary majorities – whether won by Boris Johnson or Keir Starmer – artificially inflate the feeling that the winner has a serious electoral mandate. The ERS argue this parliament least reflects the way British public voted of any in history, with Labour winning two thirds of MPs with just over a third of the vote. The opinion polls are consistently showing more than half of voters reject the two main parties, and the now-most-popular party – Reform – has just five MPs. Among PR campaigners, Hughes has a unique perspective. He hails from New Zealand – while he orders a black coffee, he insists as a point of national pride it was New Zealand and not Australia that invented the now ubiquitous flat white. He jokes that his efforts to reform the UK voting system could be considered 'reverse colonialism' (even though his father was from Paisley and he has always held a British passport). Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe New Zealand switched from FPTP to a form of PR in 1994; Hughes was elected as an MP in 2002, aged just 24, and served in parliament until 2011 under the Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark. Clark was a critic of changing the voting system to prior to 1994, but has since changed her mind and become a vocal proponent, having watched the dire warnings – of gridlock, weak coalitions, and the mainstream parties splitting – fail to materialise. Critics say PR voting systems allow extreme parties to gain a foothold. But New Zealand's experiment has not vindicated their arguments. In fact, Hughes argues, representation for the more populist parties in New Zealand has 'acted like a release valve, the steam doesn't build up too much in the system'. Coalitions, he suggests, are not something to be frightened of. After all, the only government in the past 15 years to last an entire term with the same Prime Minister was the 2010 coalition between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. 'The idea that first past the post a strong and stable system is just a joke now,' Hughes says. 'It doesn't make sense to pay the high pain threshold' – that is, the reality that voters in a FPTP system rarely get a parliament or a government that matches what they voted for – 'for something that's not fit for purpose anymore.' Electoral reform has always been a core tenet of the Liberal Democrats, who made the referendum on AV the price of going into government with Cameron. The Greens are also supporters, as are various national parties like the SNP and Plaid Cymru. (The Scottish parliament has a very similar type of PR system to New Zealand, confusingly under a different name, and the Welsh Assembly also has PR.) But PR is not only in the interest of these centrist or left-ish parties. Of course, the party that lost out most as a result of FPTP in the last election was Reform: mapping vote share onto seats would theoretically have given Nigel Farage's party 93 MPs rather than five (though this doesn't take into account how voter behaviour changes in different systems). Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice has been scathing about how FPTP punishes parties outside the mainstream, and Reform is signed up to the Make Votes Matter PR Alliance. Hughes points out that the Conservatives too were disadvantaged by FPTP in July (according to their 23.7 per cent vote share, they should have won around 30 more seats). 'And they should have got way more seats in the local elections,' Hughes adds. 'But they didn't, because the first-past-the-post 'winner's bonus' has now become like a lottery ticket. Reform are currently spending that lottery ticket. In July it was Labour.' Parliament itself is less certain on the issue than you might expect of an institution full of people who won their seats under FPTP. In December, a 10-minute rule motion brought forward by the Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney calling for PR unexpectedly passed in the Commons. The vote was purely symbolic, but it was the first time a motion of this kind has passed – thanks to the Lib Dems, the Greens, Reform and 59 Labour MPs. 'This was the House of Commons expressing what a lot of MPs do privately think,' Hughes believes. 'It's a shot in the arm for those who believe these points are worth making.' He continues, 'People who are captured by the way of thinking of the status quo just think this will never happen, so they don't worry about it too much. The vote was a reminder that this topic is not going away.' Proponents of PR claim FPTP is a key source of the UK's apathetic electorate (why vote if parliament doesn't resemble the true interests of the voters?). Hughes notes that turnout in New Zealand's recent elections tends to be far higher than Britain's (around 80 per cent, compared to 60 per cent here), and that trust in our politics is at dire levels. For Hughes it's 'glaringly obvious' that the oddities of the voting system is feeding into this loss of trust. A type of PR (and there are many options) might seem obscure in Westminster, but to return to Cameron's assessment, it's increasingly hard to argue it would be more undemocratic, unfair or crazier than the existing model. 'I think it's very risky to do nothing about that. I don't really understand why you would run that risk for your country,' Hughes tells me. [See more: Keir Starmer can rewrite the history of Brexit] Related
