In the season finale, we head to Michigan for our last story as we think about the future of the farm financial system. Featured Guests: Brent King (B. Riley Advisory Service), Jeff Conrad (AgIS Capital LLC), Thomas Hoenig (Former ...

We shift our focus from understanding the past and present to trying to predict and prepare for the future. Experts weigh in with actions that producers can take now as we enter uncharted financial waters… but will they?Featured Guests:...

When the Federal Reserve adjusts interest rates, it can significantly affect asset values, including farmland. While attention in 2022 has focused on the Fed raising rates, the preceding decades-long policy of extremely low interest rates has a...

How does a bank fail? What does “too big to fail” mean? Who audits the Fed? Dive into the connection between money supply and local loans.Featured Guests: Jim Farrell (Farrell Growth Group), Thomas M. Hoenig (Former President, Federal R...

Why is the U.S. government, and the Department of Agriculture in particular, involved in lending? Dive into how USDA's ag lending programs have shaped the ag economy and farming in general over the last hundred years, and learn what this can te...

Vendor financing is nothing new in agriculture. But it has come a long way since the days of Cyrus McCormick. Explore how non-bank credit works, how it has changed, and what risks and opportunities it might pose to the overall agriculture finan...

How does Farmer Mac fit into the big picture of ag lending? Its story is still being written. Featured guests: Brad Nordholm (Farmer Mac), John Blanchfield (Agricultural Banking Advisory Services), Jeff Conrad (AgIS Capital LLC).

Get to know the story of Farm Credit: why it was founded, how it works, and how it has both failed and succeeded.How is the Farm Credit system different from banks? What really sets Farm Credit apart is not how it lends its money, but how it ge...

Credit can be a powerful tool. But it also comes with risks. One way to manage that risk is to understand who you're lending from and what their motivations and experiences are. How exactly does an agricultural lender work as a business? How do...

Dig deep into the history of agricultural lending, back to the days of the gold standard, the Wizard of Oz as allegory, and one particularly memorable speech by William Jennings Bryan. When you think of a banker, what image comes to mind? Learn...

Conditions in the farm economy have changed rapidly since season one of the AEI.ag Presents podcast explored the 1980s farm crisis, and in sometimes contradictory ways. You may have heard that there is way less leverage and...

Season 3 of AEI.eg Presents: Nothing Borrowed, Nothing Gained

AEI.ag Presents will return this fall for season 3! While you are waiting on that, check out our newest podcast, Ag Interrupted, where we’ll take a deep look into agricultural trends that matter to learn more about the often unexpected ways tha...

For the tenth and final episode, Sarah, Brent, and David reflect on the season and key lessons. From biases to mental models, it’s important to consider how our own thought processes can impact our conclusions about ethanol and shape our expect...

From policy to electric vehicles, the future of ethanol is arguable as uncertain as it has ever been. Have the seeds for ethanol’s demise already been sown, or is the outlook less dire than it initially seems?     In this ...

What happens when a demand shift pushes commodity prices and farm incomes higher? To answer this, we have to consider the short-run and long-run implications. Just as the challenges that ethanol faced evolved and shifted, so will the future of ...

Just as corn-based ethanol production was surging to fulfill the mandates of the 2007 RFS, enthusiasm began shifting to the new kid on the block: cellulosic ethanol. With the help of the government - including mandated usage- the even better re...

The goals of every policy are eventually tested in the real world. For ethanol, the challenges came in the form of the “blend wall,” which effectively capped the growth of this formerly booming sector. Even the best-designed policies will strug...

The Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) bolstered the market for corn-based ethanol, but also fueled a frenzy to build ethanol plants. Proposed plants got larger, building costs jumped higher, and a surge of potential projects created a regulatory a...

Though the amount of enthusiasm and excitement around voluntary ag carbon markets might make you believe that we’ve already determined that it’ll be the best way to involve agriculture in climate action, it’s definitely not the only, and likely...

Ethanol’s rise was fueled by the introduction of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). Often lost in debates about implementing RFS has been the motivation, political shuffling, and history of two historic pieces of legislation. How exactly did R...

Corn alcohol has a long history as a fuel, going back well into the 19th century. Over time, it’s fallen in and out of favor, from being a pet project of Henry Ford’s to being outlawed during prohibition. By the 1970s, an oil crisis prompted fa...

Fifteen years ago, corn ethanol was a wunderkind, set to cure the U.S.’ addiction to foreign oil, reduce the pollution caused by driving, and revitalize American agriculture and rural economies. In the intervening years, the problems evolved wh...

Returning from the successful and award-winning “Escaping 1980,” the AEI.ag team presents the second season of the podcast series. In Corn Saves America, Brent Gloy, David Widmar and Sarah Mock again us...

Exploring the causes, impacts, and lasting effects of one of the most infamous events in American agriculture history, the 1980s farm crisis.In this final episode of Escaping 1980, we’re training our gaze on the horizon, armed wi...