It appears that China has officially embraced capitalism.

This is nothing more than a shrewd financial move by China. But it is a move that apparently TPTB in the US didn't see coming. The new 'green' technologies rely heavily on rare earth metals. The majority of high-strength magnets such as are used in generators and high-torque electric motors are NIB, made from NdFeB alloys (Neodymium-Iron-Boron). Neodymium is a rare earth metal. Rare earth metals are also under investigation in high-capacity battery design.

One should remember why the 'green' technology is being pushed at this moment in time. It has nothing to do with saving the planet. It has everything to do with money. The Middle-Eastern countries have their oil producing technology because TPTB gave it to them in return for fixing the value of the oil they produce to the US dollar. That, in turn, allowed the Federal Reserve to control the money supply of the US, the largest economy in the world in recent times, completely. There was no longer any need to back the money printed up with expensive gold, since it was backed up by the agreement to make it the currency used for oil.

Now that agreement is in ruins. Saddam Hussein was depegging from the dollar before the invasion of Iraq. Iran has depegged from the dollar, despite the beating of the war drums. Several other OPEC countries have either depegged or are about to depeg from the dollar as well. That leaves nothing to support the US economy. The green movement is retaliation and an attempt to regain control by making oil less valuable to OPEC through reduced demand (and the bailouts were simply a stop-gap measure to try and keep some semblance of an economy while the new directions were incorporated into it). What better way to accomplish this than to limit and control how much oil can be burned through the proposed Cap & Trade system?

But TPTB are not one group. It covers several groups. There are powers in the industrialized world, powers in the OPEC world, and powers in the Far East. This is the Far East's trump card. They have the operating mines and they now have the industry to hold the industrialized Western nations' attack on OPEC at ransom.

'Green tech' is a broad field, and one that, by definition, cannot be held hostage by any form of energy. But it can be held hostage by the materials needed to make it feasible. If there are no magnets, how will we make generators? How will we continue to improve battery life and performance without the rare earth materials? Answer: we can't! So now,while the West was busy setting up OPEC for a fall, the East saw their chance to make a play to take over the West's interests. We can't simply call it quits on attacking OPEC, either. There has been too much propaganda and progress to turn it off. Public opinion is easily swayed, but still has its limits.

It will be interesting to see how all this turns out, to say the least.

TheRedneck