World faces hi-tech crunch as China eyes ban on rare metal exports

Re:World faces hi-tech crunch as China eyes ban on rare meta... by drubio on Thursday August 27, 2009 @10:25AM (#789240)

I believe an eminent economist named Thomas Malthus said the same thing almost 200 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

Nothing has run out yet, we're all still here

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Re:World faces hi-tech crunch as China eyes ban on rare meta... by CWuestefeld on Thursday August 27, 2009 @04:43PM (#789997)

And Paul Ehrlich, a sort-of disciple of Malthus, made a famous wager that prices of several metals would rise due to increasing scarcity over the 1980-1990 period. Guess what: the prices fell, because consumers of such stuff constantly find substitute goods and processes.

See full article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon-Ehrlich_wager

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