New restrictions on China's rare earths will likely disrupt tech and defense industries

[jeffbert]

Interesting discussion.

While it is possible to get the rare earth materials from elsewhere than China, some say doing so, would destroy Western environments as opposed to Chinese; whose leaders apparently could not care less about them. But really how large an area would be devastated? 1st, they have the many environmental regulations standing in the way. Then, there are the environmentalists, many of whom want pristine earth, and are not willing to consider compromises. But those compromises are rather important. In fact, compromises are what make things happen.

 

[BadThad]

No need to panic, rare earths are NOT rare. The only reason the communists cornered the market was price. We mothballed huge mines in the US and other countries are making discoveries - there is more than enough to meet demand but it will take time to come online.

 

[BadThad]

You forget, our corporations are 150% driven by stock price....this is the catch-22 of our new economy. Doing or making ANYTHING costs much more than third world slave labor without any environmental concerns. If we have to do it ourselves, our profits might drop, and the corresponding stock drop will be even worse.

Like it or not, the only way we start being self sufficient is to demonstrate the the pain of being at the mercy of others.

Speaking of the stock market, we've dropped like a rock the past few days, and the reality is, NOTHING has happened yet. Wall Street and the computer trading systems are doing this 100% on fear and automatic selling by algorithms. God forbid we actually wait and see what happens before we decide to tank our markets, just so we can be "out in front of it"? Or are they causing more problems that would have actually happend? We'll never know.

While we';re at it, does anyone actually think Tan is going to keep the foundry fixes going and push ahead at Intel? Or, since his compensation is almost all stock price based, will he pump and dump the foundries any way he can to line his own pockets?

88% of the market is owned by the top 10% of earners. When you have tens to hundreds of millions in the market, a loss is acceptable for preservation of "paper" capital.

Drops like this are opportunity for us in the humble 12%. We can steal the rich guys money once the market rebounds - because it ALWAYS has. I've made the majority of my money from the deep market dips. That's what I save cash for (puts work well here too). This one's different though, we will come out higher and stronger - I'm willing to wait and acquire as the rich give me their money.

 

[BadThad]

I will sleep in a drunken stupor knowing our mega rich are getting richer

Have you not seen the stock market? lmao 88% of the market is owned by the top 10%!

 

[BadThad]

Did you read that on a Trump tweet. So much fail it's actually hilarious.

Is that you Xi?

 

[kiwigraeme]

Have you not seen the stock market? lmao 88% of the market is owned by the top 10%!

Do you understand pension funds

 

[BogdanR]

The US does not invade other sovereign nations without provocation.

Than please pray tell why White House’s rhetoric towards Canada sounds a whole lot like Kremlin’s vs Ukraine?

 

[SRB]

88% of the market is owned by the top 10% of earners. When you have tens to hundreds of millions in the market, a loss is acceptable for preservation of "paper" capital.

Drops like this are opportunity for us in the humble 12%. We can steal the rich guys money once the market rebounds - because it ALWAYS has. I've made the majority of my money from the deep market dips. That's what I save cash for (puts work well here too). This one's different though, we will come out higher and stronger - I'm willing to wait and acquire as the rich give me their money.

While that's all true, the real problem at hand is that we not only import junk from China, it's that those 88% that off-shored pharma, medical, rare earths, steel, and more things than I can print just to squeeze a few more pennies of shareholder value.

If we manage to single source everything, what make anyone think that the prices will stay low and supply be plentiful. China is in this for the long haul, and our stock market and major companies biggest worry is "what's our stock price next week".

 

[BogdanR]

The minerals the USA buys from China is nothing compared to the sheer amount of goods China sells to the USA. I imagine that right now the Chinese leadership are in panic mode. We are all bitching that we may have to pay a little more for our foreign goods. But China is dealing with the potential of hundreds of millions of unemployed as the factories close down.

You seem to be under the impression Chinese Communist Leadership will care about that. That is a completely different society you folk completely misunderstand. They have complete control over their population. They could completely close borders and all outside contact and survive with not all that much fuss from anyone within those borders.

You chose to deal with the dragon yourselves more than 30 years ago and sparked a China Gold Rush, gutting your manufacturing in search of Milton Friedman’s path to liberty and happiness - pure unfettered profit.

You made your own bed, slept in it and now you’re setting it ablaze without having another one built beforehand for good measure. And you also torched all your alliances.

All I can say is: don’t expect Canada and the rest of the “PATHETIC” (your administration words, not mine) NATO countries to jump right alongside you like we did in Afghanistan for instance.

Good luck on your war with China!

 

[SRB]

You seem to be under the impression Chinese Communist Leadership will care about that. That is a completely different society you folk completely misunderstand. They have complete control over their population. They could completely close borders and all outside contact and survive with not all that much fuss from anyone within those borders.

You chose to deal with the dragon yourselves 30 years ago and sparked a China Gold Rush, gutting your manufacturing in search of Milton Friedman’s path to liberty and happiness - pure unfettered profit.

You made your own bed, slept in it and now you’re setting it ablaze without having another one built for good measure. And you also torched all your alliances.

All I can say is: don’t expect Canada and the rest of the “PATHETIC” (your administration words, not mine) NATO countries to jump right alongside you like we did in Afghanistan for instance.

Good luck on your war with China!

For the first two paragraphs, you were doing good, and I was actually going to click the like button. Then you wen't completely off the rails.

The first place you wen't south, was that after aknowlging we took 30 years getting here, you fail to realize any course correction will have negative repurcussions. If this 30 year issue is going to be corrected, it will not be easy or quick. This is a problem for the instant gratification culture in the modern world, not the course correction.

Next, the idea that Cancda, the EU, et al are not part of the problem is simplistic. True, China is the gorilla in the room, but China is at least up front about it, if you care to listen. EU saw their aircraft businesses crashing, so the governments subsidized Airbus to undercut Boeing, McDonnel-Douglass, etc. It worked,and only Boeing is left standing (even thouugh it's a victim of stock price fever). Canada didn't like us haveing 38% of the worlds aluminum manufacturing, so they did it back door too. No clumsy tariffs, just cut the price on electricty to the smelting companies so they can undercut the market. US now only has two operating smelters with practically nil of world production.

No one is playing fair with us. This was overdue.

 

[BogdanR]

For the first two paragraphs, you were doing good, and I was actually going to click the like button. Then you wen't completely off the rails.

The first place you wen't south, was that after aknowlging we took 30 years getting here, you fail to realize any course correction will have negative repurcussions. If this 30 year issue is going to be corrected, it will not be easy or quick. This is a problem for the instant gratification culture in the modern world, not the course correction.

Next, the idea that Cancda, the EU, et al are not part of the problem is simplistic. True, China is the gorilla in the room, but China is at least up front about it, if you care to listen. EU saw their aircraft businesses crashing, so the governments subsidized Airbus to undercut Boeing, McDonnel-Douglass, etc. It worked,and only Boeing is left standing (even thouugh it's a victim of stock price fever). Canada didn't like us haveing 38% of the worlds aluminum manufacturing, so they did it back door too. No clumsy tariffs, just cut the price on electricty to the smelting companies so they can undercut the market. US now only has two operating smelters with practically nil of world production.

No one is playing fair with us. This was overdue.

I’m sorry but you’re not making any sense whatsoever.
I think I will survive without your like, much like the world will without America as World Police.

 

[manowar51]

You seem to be under the impression Chinese Communist Leadership will care about that. That is a completely different society you folk completely misunderstand. They have complete control over their population. They could completely close borders and all outside contact and survive with not all that much fuss from anyone within those borders.

You chose to deal with the dragon yourselves more than 30 years ago and sparked a China Gold Rush, gutting your manufacturing in search of Milton Friedman’s path to liberty and happiness - pure unfettered profit.

You made your own bed, slept in it and now you’re setting it ablaze without having another one built beforehand for good measure. And you also torched all your alliances.

All I can say is: don’t expect Canada and the rest of the “PATHETIC” (your administration words, not mine) NATO countries to jump right alongside you like we did in Afghanistan for instance.

Good luck on your war with China!

It all appears to be a negotiation strategy. Did you see Trump placed a pause on all tariffs today (except china)?

Im not a huge Trumper, I did vote for him as I felt the previous administration desperately needed to be removed. But I do believe America can use its buying strength to get better deals and move at least some manufacturing back to the states. Im not 100% convinced it will work but at the same time I am not entertaining anyone who tells me that it definitely wont work and theres nothing we can do about it.

Im just glad that we have a leader that is going to use Americas economic strength for the better of its people rather than just give and give away like previous leaders. How many countries protect their workforce from American goods (With tariffs) whilst America was letting their citizens sell to America for free? Why are people ok with this? I think a lot of it is the fabled "Trump Derangement Syndrome". I never heard a murmur on the corporate media or X when Biden or anyone else implemented tariffs.

There is entertainment value here though. Watching "the left" rush to defend the stock market and the Asian sweatshops the stock markets CEOs are using is not something I had on my card for 2025 lol.

 

[BogdanR]

It all appears to be a negotiation strategy. Did you see Trump placed a pause on all tariffs today (except china)?

Im not a huge Trumper, I did vote for him as I felt the previous administration desperately needed to be removed. But I do believe America can use its buying strength to get better deals and move at least some manufacturing back to the states. Im not 100% convinced it will work but at the same time I am not entertaining anyone who tells me that it definitely wont work and theres nothing we can do about it.

Im just glad that we have a leader that is going to use Americas economic strength for the better of its people rather than just give and give away like previous leaders. How many countries protect their workforce from American goods (With tariffs) whilst America was letting their citizens sell to America for free? Why are people ok with this? I think a lot of it is the fabled "Trump Derangement Syndrome". I never heard a murmur on the corporate media or X when Biden or anyone else implemented tariffs.

There is entertainment value here though. Watching "the left" rush to defend the stock market and the Asian sweatshops the stock markets CEOs are using is not something I had on my card for 2025 lol.

That wasn’t negotiation strategy, it was amateur hour.
Essentially Trump blinked, no matter how much political PR contorsionism everyone tries to do to prove Trump is a 5D Strategic Chess Grandmaster.
His negotiation prowess produced worse damage to the US economy than Liz Truss did to UK’s and she was removed pronto from the job. Did you notice the sellout of US Bonds, while we’re at it? The trust in the US and its dollar is gone.

Things won’t happen overnight of course but the US is already on her way down. Putin must be ecstatic, reality is wilder than his wildest dreams, and he couldn’t hope for a better outcome on the years of hybrid war he waged on the Western democracies.

 

[lonetac]

That wasn’t negotiation strategy, it was amateur hour.
Essentially Trump blinked, no matter how much political PR contorsionism everyone tries to do to prove Trump is a 5D Strategic Chess Grandmaster.
His negotiation prowess produced worse damage to the US economy than Liz Truss did to UK’s and she was removed pronto from the job. Did you notice the sellout of US Bonds, while we’re at it? The trust in the US and its dollar is gone.

Things won’t happen overnight of course but the US is already on her way down. Putin must be ecstatic, reality is wilder than his wildest dreams, and he couldn’t hope for a better outcome on the years of hybrid war he waged on the Western democracies.

Its hilarious how MAGA is saying Trump saved us from the situation HE CREATED. He doesnt get credit for that.

And it was all just a stock buying ploy, thats why Trump said buy stocks now before he announced his tariff pause. Its all market manipulation to make him and his buddies richer.

Go check MTG stock portfolio and the times she purchased. Its all out in the open for everyone to see and its not secret.

The secret to trumpers is they never ever ever admit he did anything wrong, ever. Everything Trump does is pure perfectness. I think that is the most maddening thing about trumpers.

I certainly was critical of Dems, Kamala and Biden because I dont belong to a cult.

 

[lonetac]

It all appears to be a negotiation strategy. Did you see Trump placed a pause on all tariffs today (except china)?

Im not a huge Trumper, I did vote for him as I felt the previous administration desperately needed to be removed. But I do believe America can use its buying strength to get better deals and move at least some manufacturing back to the states. Im not 100% convinced it will work but at the same time I am not entertaining anyone who tells me that it definitely wont work and theres nothing we can do about it.

Im just glad that we have a leader that is going to use Americas economic strength for the better of its people rather than just give and give away like previous leaders. How many countries protect their workforce from American goods (With tariffs) whilst America was letting their citizens sell to America for free? Why are people ok with this? I think a lot of it is the fabled "Trump Derangement Syndrome". I never heard a murmur on the corporate media or X when Biden or anyone else implemented tariffs.

There is entertainment value here though. Watching "the left" rush to defend the stock market and the Asian sweatshops the stock markets CEOs are using is not something I had on my card for 2025 lol.

Negotiation? Ya'all including Trump were here claiming tariffs needed to happen and there was no turning back.

Then trump turned back and flip flopped. He totally blinked and lost the negotiation.

You dont get to sit here for days and weeks demanding tariffs and that it will save America to only turn around and completely do a 180 on that take because Trump lifted 90% of the tariffs.

What happened to we needed them to save America?
You call it TDS, we call it "we live in reality". We can objectively look at what someone says and does and make our own determination of what is going on. If anyone has TDS, its you by trying to simplify it by spouting some fake disease you had to make up to justify liking someone so indefensible.

And to just compare what Trump attempted to do compared to any other president on any side of the political spectrum is pure ignorance.

And way to just out yourself as not knowing how tariffs work. Its a tax for consumers to pay, pure and simple. Trump said he would lower prices on day 1, end the wars on day 1, none of this happened. I know, you will brush it off as TDS as you have no response to the indefensible lies he objectively spews constantly.

Anyone spouting TDS is just too stupid to know how the world works so they have to use made up fairy tales to try and insult someone and excuse their ignorance. So easy to see through.

 

[BobHome]

Yes and no...

America has A LOT of those minerals and metals, they just don`t exploit them because it is way cheaper of doing it in third world countries.

Since now China and the USA want to play hard, many countries will exploit their natural resources way more, like Canada for example who possesses those minerals and metals in sizeable amount.

Yup. Why invest when you can buy for others that invested. I remember when US companies had 5-10-20 year plans... that's what China did in this case.
What are US plans now, 2 years? 1? All short-term profit, screw the future.