Will Copper Become the “New Gold?”
The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable American icons in the world.
And as she towers 305 feet above Ellis Island, what’s Lady Liberty wearing? Copper – 60,000 pounds of it.
Clearly, copper’s big in art. It’s also a key metal that keeps the world economy humming. Copper consumption has grown at an average annual rate of 4% since 1900. China and India – which some analysts describe as the combined market of “Chindia” – where one of every three human beings resides, needs loads of this element to meet its modernization requirements for electricity and infrastructure.
Copper is also used in today’s currency, where most U.S. coins are actually 92% copper, and 8% nickel.
But there’s no denying that, given the choice, nearly everyone prefers gold. It’s valuable, it’s seductive and it’s mystical.
Ancient kings fought wars to amass it. Yet, for thousands of years, its most enduring role has arguably been in the form of money – as a store of value.
That’s because fiat-paper-currency experiments have never lasted, and always ended badly.
Increasingly, followers of the Austrian School of Economics are nostalgic for gold to regain its former glory, perhaps “backing” a new international currency.
But despite gold’s much longer history as true money, some believe that copper – the much humbler metal – could be positioning itself to upstage gold.
To find out more about the forces that will transform copper into the “New Gold,” read on…
Six Ways to Profit From the Rebound in Luxury Spending
If the rich truly have gotten richer during the current financial unpleasantness – as some pundits allege – members of the moneyed set have been smart enough to avoid flaunting their new wealth with a rash of high-end purchases.
Lately, however, this seems to be changing: The luxury markets led a January surge in the retail sector – a surge that could mean new opportunities for investors astute enough to grab for the golden ring.
CIT Taps Former Merrill Chief Thain as New CEO
In a move that unites two prominent casualties of the financial crisis, CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) ended a prolonged search by naming John Thain, the former chief of Merrill Lynch & Co., as its new chairman and chief executive officer.
Thain, who left Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) 13 months ago amid controversy over its takeover of Merrill, will have his hands full rebuilding CIT, an embattled commercial lender that nearly collapsed in 2009.
CIT still operates under restrictions that were imposed after receiving $2.3 billion in funding under terms of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Those measures include being banned from the commercial paper market, its traditional source of funding.
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