My worldview: the US didn't "turn to" mideast oil back in the 50's because "we" ran out of oil. Rather it was just so cheap to drill over there. Then OPEC, embargoes, wars, etc., and, all of a sudden, high-priced oil led guys like Harold Hamm to drill in the US. High-priced oil made US oil E&P possible. And then the Bakken shale revolution.
Hold that thought.
I've always thought it strange that only third-world countries had rare earth metals.
From North of 60: Mining News: Alaska rare earths project gets a nudge.
Something tells me that we might see something similar with rare earth metals that we saw with oil.
Time will tell.
By the way: what industry has a huge requirement for rare earth metals? Yup, you guessed it. Renewables.
Later: see first comment.
Later, a reader sent me this link suggesting there may be "rare earths" in Texas: https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/local-company-blue-line-wants-to-help-us-become-less-reliant-on-china-for-rare-earths.Politics (see first comment which arrived in response to the following):
Now that Kamala Harris is out polling Bernie Sanders and Biden is in free fall, this is the time for Harris to go "presidential." The Democrat-24 have been pulled to the far left by Occasional-Cortex and others. But polling numbers suggest most Dems are not as crazy as "crazy Bernie" and thus safe to move to the center. Everyone knew that Biden would come in "big" after he announced but most also knew that he had no "staying power."
Kamala has already started to back off on her "Medicare-For-All" rhetoric. She looked a bit more presidential by announcing a big spending program -- $100 billion for housing for disenfranchised. The banks and real estate industry will love it. A huge program for public education (increased pay for teachers) should be next. These are "positive" programs and make a lot more sense than "putting miners out of work."NBA. Lots of talk about the trades in Los Angeles over the weekend. The one thing not talked about: coaching. Even the best players in the world need a great coach and great team dynamics. I'm thinking of the great Phil Jackson, a native of Williston, ND. See this story on Doc Rivers.
Movies: I watched three movies last night that I had never seen before, and would never think of watching but there they were on TCM and nothing else to have on in the background: Steel Magnolias; Imitatin of Life, and Back Street. I enjoyed all three. Imitation of Life was particularly good. It turns out to be #37 on BBC's list of great movies.
Dow:
- Boeing down 1.33%, down $4.61, trading at $351.25, over bad news this weekend: lost a huge sale to Airbus.
- AAPL is down over 2% after an analyst suggested the new iPhone 11 would disappoint.
Have to go. More later. Good luck to all.
There's a rare earths mine in California. Gets restarted every 20 years or so when the Chinese raise the price too much. Chinese have a better mine than ours but like to jack the price. Just like Saudis but even more of a monopoly.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I'm convinced (probably wrongly) that the rare earths story is another manufactured Malthusian crisis.
DeleteThere's not a Malthusian danger. It is a commodity that has a (near) monopoly supplier. But it is just a $$ issue. Plenty of it in the ground. Just not at same price.
DeleteI knew somebody would call me on the Malthusian analogy. But we both agree that it's a manufactured crisis: plenty of it available for the right price.
DeleteBeen there, done that. 100 B program a reincarnation of the Community Reinvestment Act during late 90's. HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo under Clinton started it all. Wall Street forced in to packaging these loans that started the Recession of 2008 when all the liar loans in those debt packages were foreclosed on. Google that act.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. So, Kamala simply re-packaged an old program. I should have guessed. Much, much appreciated.
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