Richard Harris

A good friend was waiting at a bus stop in Wanchai, Hong Kong the other day while crowds of people milled past on their way to lunch. Listening to the chatter around him, he made an interesting observation. All the older people were talking about the crazy rioters and how they had wreaked terrible and unnecessary destruction on public property in Hong Kong. In the cold light of day, the senseless devastation is reminiscent of a war zone. The younger commuters were chatting about the many videoed instances of dazed demonstrators lying on the ground being kicked in the head by a reinforced police boot and the government’s lack of support for Hong Kong people. It has been a battle between a ra

In 2010, the Chinese woke up to the fact that they were producing 95% of the rare earths in the world. The metals, such as lanthanide elements and scandium, are largely used in catalytic converters, rechargeable batteries, powerful miniature magnets and for making very hard alloys used in military armored vehicles and projectiles. They are dirty to mine and, as China is also the biggest user, they made a half-hearted attempt in that year to protect the trade by slashing exports by 40%. Others saw this as an aggressive weaponization of the trade, cornering the market and driving up prices. It worked; prices rose by between 10 and 40 times. But these neighboring elements in the periodic table