Arguing that China’s near-total rare earths monopoly is only the tip of the iceberg and an indicator of what’s to come, Michael A. Barry’s most recent edition of Morning Notes (a free subscription bulletin from DiscoveryInvesting), discusses “The Coming Resource Wars.” Barry quotes our very own Daniel McGroarty, who has said:

But the Rare Earths are just one part of the larger picture of near-total U.S. dependency on a range of technology metals – a dependency deepened by the fact that the U.S. is home to known deposits of many of these materials.

Barry argues that for too long policy makers have turned a blind eye, missing critical opportunities to reduce our over-reliance on foreign non-fuel mineral resources.  While debt and budget issues dominate the political agenda in Washington these days, perhaps the fact that this dangerous and unnecessary dependency is increasingly becoming a cause of concern for investors will help get policy makers focused on what’s coming down the pike.