Video and Transcript for America’s Rare Earth Problem
Below you can find a YouTube version of Episode #37, America’s Rare Earth Problem.
When Trump 2.0 began Tariff War 2.0 they inadvertently exposed America's soft underbelly in our commercial and military industrial complex: the supply and processing of rare earth elements. This previously little known field has now come front and center thanks to China's near monopolization of global production.
America and other western powers can catch up, we've mined and processed in this area before, but thanks to monopolization across industries that capacity is now virtually non-existent. We are taking steps towards solutions. Companies foreign and domestic have begun to work the rare earth problem.
Today on the show, Matt and David talk with Alex Jacquez, former Special Assistant to the President for Economic Development and Industrial Strategy under President Biden, now Chief of Policy and Advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, about how China gained such a powerful advantage, and what it will take to get us back in the game.
This is not as heavily edited as the podcast is, it’s closer to the raw video of our taping session. We also have a rough transcript for you.
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Thanks for watching the show! We’ll have another one for you soon.
-David and Matt
Why do Econ models miss the importance of critical resources?? They overemphasize the importance of margins. But a low margin resource can be critical to the economy. A better metric to determine resource importance is price inelasticity.
You learn what is really important when a price spikes even when supply only slightly decreases, like with gas, or rare earths.
I recommend the book “Material World” by Ed Conway about the most important resources our society runs on.