Re: Surely the final line should be prefaced with 'contestable'?
We've seen much of this before... Anyone remember the Hunt brothers and silver? They only trying to corner the market and failed. Currently, the Sauds have cut the price of oil way back. This will drive some producers out of the market. Once the price goes back up, those producers will be pumping.
If you want to have a monopoly on a commodity in today's world economy, you had some how best make damn sure that you can control ALL the supply. Other than certain proprietary and probably patented things, there really isn't that much out there that can be controlled.