Welcome to the world of Fraud Market Economics. In 2005, the market manipulators and their arbitrage fellow-travelers drove the price of merchant stock steel here in the U.S. to more than $1.60/lb (up from $0.21/lb) for a large quantity (16,000 lb) purchase. Supposedly, it was the Chinese who were driving the price up. The only problem with that theory is that the Chinese were selling us finished steel products for less than $0.40/lb.
The same has been true of copper products for the past few years. I paid $24/lb for copper bar last summer here in the U.S. The reason cited was Chinese purchases. The only problem with that is that Chinese products that are mostly copper are being sold for (about) $0.75/lb!
As nearly as I can tell, the root of this situation (at least here in the U.S.) was the 1995 Gingrich Contract On America. An aspect of it that was totally overlooked by our respected "analysts" is that (so-called) market value accounting replaced cost accounting for publicly traded Class C corporations. Thus, if somebody will claim to be willing to pay $X for something, then the value of that something is $X. [This was the basis of the Enron debacle.]
The thing is that there are two trade treaties reaching their final stages of negotiation pending that will extend this wonderment to all American-Pacific and American-EU trade. I expect that the market manipulators are salivating buckets at the prospects...
