Basic HTML Version
...
Crumbling Bedrock
of
US.Economy
by
Gene H. Hogberg
The U.S. is losing its domestic resource base. And its vision is clouded as
to what is happening in one of the world's most strategic, mineral-rich regions.
T
HE
United States and
the democratic free
nations of the Western
world may soon be faced
with the gravest economic
crisis since the days of the
Great Depression.
•
• •
I t could come from either of
two sources.
T he first possibility is often
propounded in the general news
media: T he unraveling of the
globally interlinked banking sys–
tem as a resull of a majar defau lt
by any number of debtor nations,
such as Brazil, Mexico or Argen–
tina.
Every few months, the debt cri–
sis fiares anew. So far, repeated
last-minute rescue operations ex-
ERYTHRITE
Cobalt,
represented
by chunk of
erythrite ore,
is an essential
in superhard
alloys for
aerospace
industry.
tending debt servicing have pre–
vented major defaults from occur–
ring.
The second probable cause of
economic turmoil is far less percep–
tible to the average man on the
st reet. lt revolves around thc dete–
riorating minerals base of Western
society.
In the United States, the once–
formidable mining and mineral
processing industries are suffering
from suffocating governmental reg–
ulation , the impact of radical,
unbalanced environmental ism and
low-cost foreign competition.
Coupled with this is a dangerous
overreliance for key minerals on
potentially unstable parts of the
world.
Very few pcople are aware that
behind the increased unrest in
southern Africa, for example, is a
concerted effort to deprive the
Western world of the mineral
resources in that very critica( area.
More on this key factor later.