The Fargo Forum and Agweek TV have produced a well-done report examining how today’s U.S. trade war, primarily with China, is hurting the ag sector in ways similar to the impact from a U.S. grain embargo on the Soviet Union in 1980. In the past it was wheat; today it’s soybeans.

During the 80s, one in four U.S. farms failed. “U.S. interventions backfired 40 years ago, and seem to be doing the same again,” the Forum’s story says.  Only time will tell, however. Yet this report does a good job of bringing up lessons that should have been learned from history.

Meanwhile, economic confidence among businesses is waning, which in turn has led to a reduction in how much they reinvest in their operations. Among small businesses, 40 percent now expect the economy to worsen over the next 12 months compared with 29 percent in July and 23 percent a year ago, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The Economist reports “Parts of the country are already facing a downturn.” Others remain more optimistic, such as in this report from Fox Business, even though it’s titled “trade war is driving the U.S. economy to the brink of a recession.”