[ExI] not that rare earth

[spike at rainier66.com]

A few days ago, I speculated that the invisible hand of capitalism would
find alternative sources for rare earth elements.  Well the invisible hand
did so.  There are other nations besides China which are advanced in
chemical engineering, which have rare earth ore and which likewise have
little concern over pollution or can deal with it effectively, such as
Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia.  The spot price of the critical earth
elements reflects these alternative sources cranking up their facilities.
China doesn't have the whole world by the ass on the earth elements.

 

The earth elements (we have learned they aren't rare (their usage is rare))
experience caused me to think about an Arthur C. Clarke comment about
contact between civilizations of vastly different levels of technology,
which is always destructive to the less advanced civilization.  The USA is
not accustomed to ending up on the losing end of that deal, ever.  It did to
some extent in the car business, but that evened out after a time.

 

Consider the earth elements.  We were told China had all the refineries and
technology on that, so even if the USA were to fire up an earth element mine
and build a refinery, China could always undercut it and make it go bust.
There is an alternative: open contracts with countries which don't have all
the expensive environmental regulations the USA has, particularly ones which
need American currency.  OK, so those materials aren't so rare, and we can
see from the sagging spot prices the speculators are dispirited.  Well, not
all the speculators.  The earth element bears are having a marvelous and
profitable time, the rare bulls are stampeding the other direction, at a
loss.

 

Consider now Haiti.  They are right here next to a tech giant, close enough
that a small private plane can fly over with one fuel stop.  It is close by,
and very scientifically advanced.  No matter what Haiti does, absolutely
regardless of what Haiti does in the sciences, in technology, in any
technology it chooses, it cannot compete with its giant tech-advanced
neighbor.  The existence of the giant tech-advanced neighbor is preventing
Haiti from developing its own advanced technology, for regardless of what it
tries to do, the USA is next door, already offering that product cheaper and
more advanced.  Any tech university that Haiti can build cannot compete with
the existing tech universities nearby.  Result: Haiti is completely
dependent for technology, medicines, electronics, everything, and cannot
climb out.

 

The USA is not accustomed to being dependent on any other country,
particularly a likely military adversary in the foreseeable future.  Now we
learn that the big threat from China's iron grip on the earth elements was
exaggerated.  We can still get what we need to do what we need to do.

 

There is a fun follow up to this post, to follow when I return.

 

spike  

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