[2banana]

1. Rare earth metals are not that rare.

2. They are found in abundance all around the world

3. They are environmentally dirty to mine and refine

4. All China is going to do with the “nuclear option” is to slightly raise the price of rare earth metals and lose their entire market

[logi_cal869]

Exactly. This is all hype.

Futures markets would be off the charts if there was any truth to it all.

[MrEdd]

Well, if they tick off the United States enough they could find themselves subjected to a coal embargo.

Let’s see who gets hurt worse.

[cpdiii]

We have these same rare earth minerals in the west and other nations. We buy them from China due to the fact they can produce them cheaper due to their labor costs. Impose huge tariffs on these and we will be competitive. The Chinese impose huge tariffs on our goods mostly agricultural that they are not competitive with.

[Svartalfiar]

4. All China is going to do with the “nuclear option” is to slightly raise the price of rare earth metals and lose their entire market

So it will definitely take us longer to get spooled up, but rare earths and China is just like oil and OPEC. You do enough dumb shit and the US will just open the floodgates.