OF NOTE

Gunjan Kedia

U.S. Bancorp, Minneapolis-based parent company of U.S. Bank, announced that Gunjan Kedia will be its new president, reporting to Andy Cecere, who will retain the title of chairman and CEO. Kedia, 53, will oversee the company’s three business lines. Kedia previously served in leadership roles at PwC, McKinsey & Co., BNY Mellon and State Street Financial. She has been with U.S. Bank since 2016.

ADVERTISING/PUBLIC RELATIONS

The One Club for Creativity, a global organization supporting creative design, announced that Bob Barrie, partner at Rise and Shine and Partners, Minneapolis, has been named a 2024 inductee into its Creative Hall of Fame; Barrie is former art director and partner, Fallon.

DEVELOPMENT

Doran Cos., a Bloomington-based property developer, announced Brent Lindstrom‘s promotion to chief construction officer. Over six years ago, Lindstrom founded Doran Special Projects, a division dedicated to executing specialized construction projects of all sizes.

FEDERAL RESERVE

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis announced that Christine Gaffney has been named senior vice president of the Treasury Services; Gaffney joined the Fed in 2001, advancing to senior vice president for supervision, regulation and credit in 2017.

HONORS

Minneapolis law firm Lockridge Grindal Nauen announced that partner Charlie Nauen has been selected as this year’s recipient of the American Constitution Society Justice David Lillehaug Award for Distinguished Leadership. … The U.S. Small Business Administration has named Manuel Perez of JMLM Restaurants as SBA’s Minnesota Minority-Owned Small Business of the Year. JMLM Restaurants is a Savage-based Subway franchisee.

LAW

Fredrikson, Minneapolis, announced that attorney Mattie M. Kim has joined as a senior associate in its Litigation Group. Prior to joining Fredrikson, she was a litigation associate at two global law firms. … Faegre Drinker, Minneapolis, announced that real estate partner Lica Tomizuka has assumed the role of Minneapolis office leader. She has been with the firm for 21 years and was a long-time co-chair of the firm’s diverse lawyers resource group and served on the firm’s diversity and inclusion and nominating committees. … Eckberg Lammers, Stillwater, announced the addition of attorney Leah Boeve to its Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate team. Boeve previously was with Remington Law Office in New Richmond, Wis. … Ogletree Deakins, Minneapolis, welcomed Corie Anderson as a shareholder. Anderson joins the firm from Peters, Revnew, Kappenman & Anderson, where she was a shareholder. … National law firm Spencer Fane announced the addition of partners Carmen Bickerdt and David Koob to the firm’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice group in the Minneapolis office. … Saul Ewing, Minneapolis, announced that partner Katherine “Katie” Barrett Wiik has been chosen as a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Her nomination was supported by Fellow Eric Magnuson of Robins Kaplan and Jon P. Schmidt, a current member of the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

MANUFACTURING

Reell Precision Manufacturing, a Vadnais Heights-based maker of small-package motion control technology for business-to-business shipping, announced that Shannon Gronemeyer has joined the company as vice president of global sales and customer service.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Spineology, an Oakdale-based maker of ultra-minimally invasive spine surgery implants, announced the addition of Emory Rooney as executive vice president, sales. Prior to joining Spineology, Rooney was vice president of sales, east at Alphatec Spine.

NONPROFITS

St. Paul-based Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota announced the following executive appointments: Joe Khawaja, senior vice president of finance and operations; Alexis Oberdorfer, promoted to senior vice president of services; and Janine Fugate, promoted to associate vice president of marketing and communications.

ORGANIZATIONS

The Association of Legal Administrators Minnesota Chapter announced the following members to its Board of Directors: President: Vanessa Kahn, Monroe Moxness Berg; President-Elect: Bernie Theis, Jardine, Logan, O’Brien; Administrative Director: Rebecca Doyle, Maslon; Communications Director: Jessica Johnson, Fox Rothschild; Education Director: Kim Motzko, Fredrikson & Byron; Finance Director: Suzette Allaire, Maslon; Membership Director: Gayle Hildahl, Ballard Spahr; and Past President (Immediate): Deb O’Connor, CLM.

RAILROADS

Anacostia Rail Holdings announced the appointment of Quentin Schulte as president, Northern Lines Railway, St. Cloud. Most recently, Schulte served as NLR general manager. NLR is wholly owned by ARH and operates 25 miles of BNSF trackage.

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EMAIL ITEMS to businessnews@pioneerpress.com.

Emanuel Reynoso finally returned to Minnesota last week, but a comeback to MLS play appears further off on the horizon.

The Loons all-star midfielder was away from Minnesota United for seven weeks after he failed to go to his team-organized U.S. green card appointment in Argentina in late March. He stayed in his native country through early May.

Now Reynoso has to go through “a clear plan outlined for him before any first-team reintegration,” a MNUFC spokesperson said to the Pioneer Press this weekend.

Reynoso, who battled a knee injury to start the season, has only played 31 minutes in one game this season, coming off the bench in a 2-0 win over Los Angeles FC on March 16. He then left for Argentina when the Loons were idle the following week and didn’t come back.

It was considered an unexcused absence. the club and Reynoso were in communication during the hiatus, with Reynoso saying he would be back sooner than what actually happened.

On April 9, the Loons’ new Chief Soccer Officer Khaled El-Ahmad issued a statement on the situation. It included this line: “Our entire focus is on the players and staff who are here.”

The Loons attention to the active roster is paying off. MNUFC are off to a great start — 20 points through 10 matches — and sit in first place in the Western Conference in points per match.

Reynoso, who also missed the opening week of preseason camp this year, now might be subjected to training with the Loons’ developmental team, MNUFC2, for an undefined time period before any chance to rejoin the MLS side.

That approach would differ from what happened a year ago. When Reynoso missed the first 40 percent of the 2023 season, he soon rejoined the first team and played in a MLS match under former manager Adrian Heath in June.

The Loons new leadership, which includes head coach Eric Ramsay, do not appear likely to take a similar approach this year.

Loons players are also taking a different stance on Reynoso’s absence this season. Captain Michael Boxall told the Pioneer Press on April 16: “I think he’s made decisions that kind of shows everyone around here that he doesn’t care too much about the club.”

There’s also a possibility Reynoso has already played his last game for the Loons, with an option being the club offloads the talented playmaker in the summer transfer window from July 18-Aug. 14. That could come in the form of a trade to another MLS team or a transfer out to another league, such as Mexico’s Liga MX.

Edward Lotterman

It is a beautiful spring and farmers have been going gangbusters, not only here in Minnesota but across the nation. Moreover, drought maps show the best soil moisture conditions in key farm areas in years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture tabulates weekly Crop Progress reports for major crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton for our nation as a whole and for each major growing state. They are released each Monday showing progress as of the Sunday just before.

The last two weeks show that major crops are being planted early. The fraction of corn and soybean acres with seed in the ground by the end of April was higher than usual. As a result, the fraction that had emerged was one-fourth higher than a five-year average for the country as a whole. It was 40% ahead of average for the key state of Iowa and 67% for Minnesota.

Soybeans, nearly always planted after corn, show a similar pattern. The proportion with seed in the ground by the end of April was 80% higher than average including half-again higher for Illinois, twice as high for Iowa and three times as high for Minnesota.

Why is this important? Well, many adverse things can still happen. But early planting has a strong positive effect on both crops if conditions such as soil moisture and temperatures for both soil and air remain favorable. These are good so far this year.

The USDA and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration together with the University of Nebraska compile U.S. Drought Monitor maps. With the exception of an area in northeastern Iowa, virtually all of the major corn and soy areas show no moisture shortages at all and are the best in years.

So, all other things equal, we are on track to have high national output of these two major crops that are key to Minnesota agriculture. This is bad news for farmers.

What, you ask? How can a bountiful crop be bad?

Yes, high corn and soy output is good for the nation as a whole because vegetable oils and all of the meats produced using these crops will be cheaper. And yes, a bumper crop exhilarates farmers. But there is an important paradox. High production tends to reduce overall net incomes from growing these crops.

The problem is that high volumes harvested reduce prices. And the drop in price more than offsets the increase in quantity. Value of sales is lower while costs remain the same, so net income is down.

This brings us to a key economic variable that also affects who actually “pays” higher tariffs on imports or what portion of the half of FICA nominally paid by the employer actually comes from the employee.

This is “elasticity” and it applies to both supply and demand. It makes many students’ eyes glaze over but is vital to understanding everyday questions. If the price of eggs goes up, how many fewer eggs will consumers buy? If the price of gasoline falls, how much more will people use? What about toilet paper? Will a drop in price boost consumer purchases?

Formally, “elasticity of demand” refers to the percentage change in the quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price. If the price of bread goes up 20% and the quantity bought drops 6%, the elasticity is -0.3. If this number is less than 1.0, demand is “inelastic.” This is usual. If it were greater than 1.0, it would be “elastic.”

Or, from the other end, if a 10% larger corn crop results in 20% lower market price, the elasticity is -0.5. Say that a farmer grows 100,000 bushels and sells them for $5 a bushel. Revenue is $500,000. If their crop were 110,000 bushels, up 10% and the price down to $4, revenue would be $440,000, a 12% drop. That is the sort of outcome that U.S. farmers may face this year, although, again, many other factors are at play including weather for the next five months, crops elsewhere in the world and overall demand.

The sort of adverse relationship for small producers in a large market is common because most elasticities are less than 1.0 and they cannot limit output. But the same sorts of elasticities apply for products that have only one producer or perhaps a few, as often is the case with medicines. Demand for insulin is very inelastic. Within a given range, producers can raise prices and the quantity insulin users buy drops little. Absent regulation of rates, the same is true for electricity.

The fact that reducing quantity sold raises net profits is obvious for products with any degree of monopoly power. Monopolists limit output to raise their incomes, they don’t increase it the way farmers or small businesses do. If there are a few large producers, they will collude to raise prices and thus net income, but they have to decide how much each cuts production. That has been the knotty problem for OPEC for decades.

So what about import tariffs or FICA taxes for Social Security and Medicare? How are elasticities involved?

Start with trade restrictions such as those proposed by Donald Trump. These are a subject that lead journalists into what logic profs call “the fallacy of the false dichotomy” or idea that the answer is entirely one thing or the other. Who would lose money with a 60% tariff on all U.S. imports from China: the U.S. or China, American consumers or U.S. producers?

The answer is both. U.S. consumers would pay more to buy the same amount of goods or would have to reduce quantities purchased. Chinese producers would sell less of their production or would have to slash their prices. The knotty problem is that the relative split of cost varies product by product.

One factor with a tariff specific to China is the degree to which other countries could ramp up their production if their behemoth competitor was at a big disadvantage relative to the rest. Bangladesh, the Philippines, Mexico, Honduras and many other countries could ramp up output of clothing and simple housewares and Chinese manufacturers would be hurt hard. Wages in many Chinese sectors would drop. U.S. consumers would not pay 60% more for these products  And, to the degree that prices here went up, domestic U.S. clothing producers would have better sales. Output here would rise somewhat.

Anyone can see that the degree to which such adjustments would happen depend on time. In the short run, few changes can be implemented and the U.S. would face huge price increases. But as producers here and in the rest of the world ramped up, prices would drop.

Note also that there are not as many producers of smartphones, computers and solar panels outside of China as there are for clothing. So U.S. buyers would pay through the nose for a long time. U.S. output and employment would rise but costs here would be higher than in China and products would cost more.

Similar situations apply for excise taxes. The Bush 41 administration imposed a luxury tax on new high-priced pleasure boats. The result was that hundreds of skilled workers in specialty builders, largely on the Great Lakes, lost their jobs. The price of used yachts, to which the tax did not apply, rose sharply. Hardly any money went to the U.S. Treasury. Fat cats were inconvenienced but paid little.

What about FICA? That is a vital question as we talk about restructuring Social Security and Medicare. The quick answer is that the effects of higher FICA taxes, whether nominally on employer or employee, on the number of jobs and on pay levels would vary, industry by industry and job by job. But that vital deserves examination by itself.

St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.

Finding your way around the night sky can be really intimidating, especially if you’re new to stargazing. The best way to learn the constellations is to use the ones you can recognize to help you find the ones you’re unfamiliar with and those that aren’t as bright. Another fun way to learn to navigate the sky is star hopping, traveling from one star to another across the celestial dome with your eyes rather than a spaceship. It works well!

Our starting point will be very easy to find: the Big Dipper, the rear end and tail of the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear. We won’t worry about the rest of the Big Bear right now; we’ll concentrate on the Big Dipper, hanging upside down in the early evening May sky. First, we want to face north and look up at the two stars on the left side of the pot opposite the handle. Shoot a line downward from those two stars, Merak and Dubhe, and you’ll run right into Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star. If you extend a clenched fist at arm’s length, three of those fist-widths will get you from Dubhe to Polaris. Polaris is the brightest star in the much fainter Little Dipper, and Polaris is positioned at the end of the handle.

(Mike Lynch)

Next, face due east as best you can. From that vantage point, the Big Dipper will appear to be standing on its handle. Extend the arced line of the handle stars; handle stars Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid beyond the handle, and you arch yourself directly to the very bright and orange-hued star Arcturus. This famous star-hopping tip is called “arc to Arcturus.”

Arcturus is one of the brightest stars in the spring and the brightest star in the constellation Bootes the Herdsman or Farmer. Facing to the east, Bootes actually looks much more like a big sideways kite pointing to the left or north, with Arcturus serving as the tail of the kite. Some folks see Bootes as a one-scoop ice cream cone lying on its side.

Astronomically, Arcturus is considered a bloated red giant star nearing the end of its life. It’s over 21 million miles in diameter, about 25 times the sun’s diameter. It used to be about the same size as our sun, but crazy helium fusion has caused it to expand rapidly. Arcturus lies about 37 light years from Earth, with just one light year equaling nearly 6 trillion miles. The light from Arcturus tonight originally left that star when The Minnesota Twins won the World Series for the first time in 1987.

Arc to Arcturus isn’t the end of the arc, though. Continue the arc, and you’ll eventually run into a bright star with a slightly blue hue. That’s Spica in the low southeast heavens. I’ve also heard the adage “Arc to Arcturus and then spike to Spica.”

Spica, about 250 light years away and nearly eight times the diameter of our sun, is the brightest star in the very large but very faint constellation Virgo the Virgin. Spica is close by one of my favorite constellations, Corvus the Crow. If you’re still facing east, look for a lopsided trapezoid to the right or south of Spica. That trapezoid is supposed to be a crow? Good luck seeing that!

There you have it, a classic example of a star hopping in the sky. With any star map, you discover other star-hopping tricks to travel all around the great celestial dome, making the stars your old friends!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

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