Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:
Editor:
You report that the Chinese government is actively keeping production of rare-earth minerals artificially high in order to keep their prices artificially low, likely in an effort to maintain Chinese suppliers’ large share of the global market in these minerals (“Rare-Earth Prices Are in the Doldrums. China Wants to Keep Them That Way.” July 16).
No further evidence is needed that Americans and everyone else outside of China should rest easy about our access to rare-earth minerals. If rising prices of these minerals will spark greater production in places outside of China, these materials aren’t so rare after all and that country has no real monopoly in their production. China’s ‘advantage’ is nothing more than its government’s willingness to force Chinese citizens to subsidize the rest of the world’s use of rare-earth minerals.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
