Tuesday
At a time when what are called "rare earths" - key ingredients in many of our high-tech goods - are becoming, well, rarer and more costly, here is an interesting article at the Wall Street Journal on how firms are looking to do without such metals via the use of substitutes.
Substitution of one substance of nature for another, coupled with processes of minaturisation and use of smaller, lighter materials, is helping to deal with the supposed nightmare of how we are all running out of stuff. At this point, I must make my standard plug for that wonderful book, The Ultimate Resource, by Julian L Simon, and here also is the recently published and excellent The Rational Optimist, by Matt Ridley.
As Brian Micklethwait notes below in his piece about a Kevin Dowd speech, we are likely heading for serious trouble on the monetary front. All the more reason, therefore, to bang on about the continued creativity and adaptability of people working in free markets.
By the way, on the subject of rare earths, a good person to follow is libertarian blogger Tim Worstall, who makes a living from this area.
You know, while I was reading down that, I was thinking of Timmy and you then mentioned the Scandium King.
Posted by jameshigham at September 13, 2011 09:39 AM
I'm led to believe that they aren't that rare, there are loads of reserves all over the planet, its just a lot cheaper to mine them in China than other places (due to usual reasons) and they're limiting exports.
Posted by ManikMonkee at September 13, 2011 09:51 AM
Quite fun about rhenium there as well. That's another market dominated by another Englishman running a small private company.
And the lighting stuff: yup, there's no substitutes there that we know of yet.
Posted by Tim Worstall at September 13, 2011 12:43 PM
Have no fear - government (by accident or design) will find ways to make either making or using these substitutes very difficult.
The words "accident or design" are important - as even I do not believe that all the bad things modern government does are on purpose.
Give people (officials as well as politicians) unlimited and arbitrary power and they will do terrible things.
Sometimes without even meaning to.
Posted by Paul Marks at September 13, 2011 08:39 PM
Another possibility is the actual creation of rare-earth elements from nuclear fission in LFTRs (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors). Granted, it might be a lot easier right now to mine the stuff, but it is interesting to note that the "waste" products of a LFTR include handy elements like xenon, neodymium, and various medically useful isotopes. So while we produce electricity as the major output, a side-effect is the production of other useful things.
Posted by Alex VanderWoude at September 13, 2011 10:56 PM
Don't forget the article I did not so long ago...
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2011/08/monopolies_do_n.html
Posted by Dale Amon at September 14, 2011 12:14 AM
I remember reading, just a short time ago, about a Japanese firm that was ready to grab 'rare earths' from the Pacific seabed. since this would disrupt China's plans to monopolise the rare earth markets, they must be stopped!
Posted by 'Nuke' Gray at September 14, 2011 01:34 AM
Yes I highly recommend reading or watching Julian Simon, this series of his is well worth watching, the mans humanity and warmth really shines through and his positivity is a joy to behold!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLQoa_FA_zo
Posted by monstro at September 14, 2011 01:38 AM
