The Economic Perspective 10/10/2025

The Latest Trending Economic, Environmental and Infrastructure News Curated for You by The Balmoral Group

The Balmoral Group provides practical, professional and precise Economics, Data Analytics, and Engineering Consulting services and is part of a globally integrated team.

Happy Friday! 

Welcome Back!

This week TBG partners and directors are busy at our annual strategic planning. We’re working together to shape a roadmap that drives us toward our long-term goals and strengthens our shared vision of delivering trusted knowledge with integrity. We hope you have had a good week, and we are excited to share what articles we have curated for this week.

This week's we have articles highlighting environmental issues such as the Atlanta Fed's research into hurricanes in our first article, Washington State's evaluation into sustainable jet fuel in our second article, and droughts in the Midwest in our third article.

We also have articles covering global trade impacts as a result of tariffs. Our fourth and last article covers impacts on commercial construction and world trade outlooks, respectively.

Our data visualization covers food emissions associated with the top 50 companies and what companies have released emission information and emission targets.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be interested. If you’d like to view previous editions please click here, or to subscribe please click here!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

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The Atlanta Fed's Role in Understanding the Economic Impact of Natural Disasters

The Atlanta Fed released research on hurricane impacts. Studying Hurricane Michael, research finds that residents of hurricane-impacted areas that lived in higher quality neighborhoods tended to move to even higher quality neighborhoods, while those that lived in areas with high poverty, low education, poor employment prospects etc. tended to move to even worse areas. Notably, in Bay County, Florida, residents did not move back within three years, as was expected. Distress in property values from neighborhood abandoned properties caused those with mortgages to move to lower quality areas. Read more here.

Evaluating Impacts of Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Washington State’s Department of Ecology is investing in a new study to evaluate the potential adverse environmental impacts of sustainable aviation fuel production. Sustainable aviation fuel is derived from low-carbon sources such as biomass, organic waste, and clean synthetic feedstocks, and then blended with conventional petroleum-based jet fuel. The study will focus on natural and built resources at a broad level and provide information to developers and users to help reduce environmental impacts. The Department of Ecology will be taking public comments on October 21^st and 22^nd. You can find links to virtual meetings here and here. You can read more about the study here

Midwest Drought Expands Despite Recent Rainfall

The most recent U.S. Drought Monitor shows drought intensifying in southwest Missouri, northeast and into central and northern Illinois. Moderate drought is also expanding from northern Minnesota to northwest Wisconsin. Due to the droughts some cattle ranchers have already switched to feeding hay to cattle that are unable to graze due to grasses not growing enough in the drought. More than 70% of the Midwest is experiencing drought right now with severities ranging from moderate to extreme drought. Read more here.

Tariffs Add new Pressure to Commercial Construction Budgets

Cushman and Wakefield are now projecting a 9% rise in materials costs and a 4.6% increase in total project costs due to tariffs with data centers most impacted. Shifting trade policy is creating challenges for commercial real estate construction as building materials are tariffed costs associated with construction continue to rise. Steel, aluminum, and copper are seeing the largest cost increases as they are subject to tariffs of up to 50 percent. High interest rates, cautious lending, and supply and demand issues were already issues affecting the industry and tariffs have now added another layer onto ongoing concerns. Read more here..

Remote Sensing Boosts Green Roof Vegetation Health

Recent years have seen urban landscapes adopt green roofs, a reflection of the growing trend in their value of enhancing urban ecosystem services. Not only do these green spaces enhance aesthetics, but they also improve air quality, urban heat island mitigation, stormwater management, and biodiversity support. As this trend is further studied new developments are understood about the impact these spaces have on urban environments. As green roofs age, vegetation health is shown to improve despite initial ideas that soil degradation would increase with green roof age. Important factors that determine green roof health include physical dimensions, building height, and the type of vegetation installed. Larger roofs tend to have healthier vegetation. Read more here.

WTO Hikes Global Trade Forecast for 2025, but Dismal Outlook for 2026

The World Trade Organization hiked its forecast for global trade growth in 2025 but warned its forecast for 2026 had deteriorated. Predictions are that trade volume growth in 2025 would stand at 2.4%, which is up from 0.9% in the trade body’s August report. The outlook for next year is currently expected at 0.5% compared to original 1.8% expectations. Global trade is expected to slow as tariffs take full effect and the increases in trade this year were largely a result of front-loading trade in anticipation of tariffs taking effect. Service exports are expected to slow from 6.8% in 2024 to 4.6% in 2025 and 4.4% in 2026. Read more here.

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Data Visualization of the Week

Food Emissions Benchmark (2025)

The Food Emissions 50 Company Benchmark measures corporate progress toward tackling climate risk in the food sector and accelerating the transition toward lower emissions. Companies are assessed based on the quality of their emissions disclosures, reduction goals, and climate transition action plans. Ceres updated their Food Emissions 50 to include global companies that generate significant revenue in North America. Among other data points tracked by Ceres they show up what companies disclose their emissions and if they disclose their targets, which can be seen in the image below. Key takeaways from their report include greater supply chain disclosures, more sophisticated climate analysis, greater opportunities in reducing potent agriculture emissions, and major companies quantifying reduction strategies. Download the report here.