Re: Hmm fails the Tim Worstall Test.
Tim Worstall had some sensible things to say on this subject. I did a search and came up with these two from 2010:
"China's doomed attempt to hold the world to ransom; Rare Earths - Actually, they're not that rare"
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/15/rare_earth_metals/>
"Don't let China hold rare-earths to ransom again; There's plenty to go around if we're clever"
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/08/rare_metals_china/>
Once upon a time in the early 1990s, I recall a report that the factory which made roughly 80% of the global supply of plastic IC packaging material had been destroyed by fire. I also recall reading of many operations panic buying the stuff, and some speculators buying as much as they could in the hope of making a killing later on when the price went sky-high.
I never did find out exactly how supply was maintained, but it turned out that the speculators didn't do at all well and the panic-buyers ended up looking sheepish because - well, somehow, despite the total destruction of 80% of global production capacity, "the market" dealt with it. When there's big money to be made from supplying something, that something will end up being supplied if at all possible.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
