[World Spotlight] About the US Border Crisis & Global Copper Market Trends

Read more about the impact of the US Border Crisis & Global Copper Markets on World Affairs in Areas & Producers

The US border crisis is on the minds of all Americans right now — and that’s something that both sides of the aisle would agree on. Although they disagree on how to respond to the ongoing crisis, there’s at least an aid package for the border, accompanied with foreign military aid for Ukraine and Israel, that is more than likely to pass through the US Congress just in time for the 2024 election campaign.

Meanwhile, the discussion about the US interest rates was still in focus during a CNN interview on “60 Minutes” with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell last weekend. They are finally calling for some rate cuts, but have stopped short of announcing a timeline for them.

Oh, by the way, did you hear about the big interview with Tucker Carlson and Russian President Vladimir Putin? I’m sure you did, as the reporting on the interview has yielded more substantial commentary than the actual discussion held between Carlson and Putin. During such an inflection point for the Russia-Ukraine war, it never ceases to amaze me how little people care about the NATO expansion issues, as if the only thing causing Russian agression toward Ukraine is a sense of nostalgia and history.

Explore more news stories and research updates about the US Border Crisis & Global Copper Markets from the publication Areas & Producers below.

This era of the US border crisis appears to be spiraling out of control! (click this link for the full story)

George Friedman is founder of Geopolitical Futures and author of many books on geopolitics. This latest writing by Friedman about the United States’ history of engaging with wars around the world is insightful and a little controversial.

Now, here are my thoughts about the article.

“Many argue that the United States should not have involved itself in the Ukraine war…These are not frivolous arguments, but they miss other dimensions of war. The first is that war isn’t always a choice. The second is that avoiding war is sometimes even costlier than entering a conflict.”

The cost of war is not generally taken into consideration since the United States seems prepared to fund wars and conflicts at any given moment — just look at how quickly they sent their naval ships to the Red Sea. War isn’t a choice; it is an imperative. When it becomes an imperative, then it immediately conjures up thoughts of what defense and security should, or should not, mean to the people affected. To avoid war is often not in the interest of most countries, even though they cannot seriously sustain a prolonged war such as the magnitude of the Russia-Ukraine war, which is why I’m surprised that Ukraine has continued to put up with the invasion from Russia for this long.

“The question is not whether the world appears a dangerous place to the U.S. but rather what is to be done about the situation. There are always choices; some save a country, some trap a country, some urge caution, and others demand action. The U.S. is always on the threshold of making another decision, with great debate over what it ought to be.”

This debate is going to be especially fierce during an election year. The foreign policy agenda has been linked to the US’ own national security close to home — known as the “border crisis” — as the country is in shock over the surge in migrants from the US’ southern border with Mexico. It has also come to the attention of authorities that these migrants are coming from all over the world — even China! Wow, this era of the border crisis appears to be spiraling out of control, which is why the debate ought to be surrounding why the US is still attracting people from all over the world; and whether or not this is adverse to the US foreign policy agenda going beyond the 2024 presidential election.

CEO of Global Mining Giant Freeport-McMoran Talks Copper Prices & Strategy (click this link for the full story)

Freeport-McMoran might only be known to people following the global mining industry or global commodities markets. The company is based in Pheonix where there is already a huge mining industry for copper — i.e. the state of Arizona is known by the “three C’s” as copper, cattle and cotton. Moreover, the Biden Administration’s inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been a boon for the state’s future economic growth.

A few weeks ago, current CEO of Freeport-McMoran Richard Adkerson spoke with CNBC about the global copper market trends. Here’s what he said:

“We have a strategy focused on being the global leader in copper — and we’re very satisfied with that strategy — it’s really been a micro versus micro situation. The micro factors for copper have been strong. The demand in 2023 was stronger in the US and stronger in China than expected…So right now many of the macro factors come into play positively for copper; with the market being as tight, inventories being in low, it’s a watch-out situation for what might happen with copper prices.”

Calling this moment a “watch-out situation” for global copper prices should get most people’s attention when thinking about the global commodities scenarios, especially for copper, since many of the global mining projects for metals are spread out across multiple jurisdictions in North America, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia-Pacific.

For example, the issues over a copper mining project in Panama continued to spiral out of control leading up to the Supreme Court decision to close the mine — putting billions of dollars of investments at risk — and leading to increased concern over the volatility of copper prices and tight supplies.

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