Welcome to Lord Copper

Opinions about lots of things - mostly related to the worlds' metal markets

Carbon and Hypocrisy

26 February 2020

Something has been bothering me for a while. Of course, I’m no climate scientist, so I have to accept that, if I were, the answer to my point may actually be easily explained. First, let’s just be clear that the “the science is all settled” argument is not necessarily correct; there are potentially differing views and interpretations of data, which may rationally indicate differing outcomes.

Time Pieces

19 February 2020

Time may be a great healer, but it’s also the dimension that gives perspective to lives. It’s divisive, in that the ‘when’ largely dictates the ‘what’. In other words, when we live determines what is significant to us and what is merely of passing, historical interest. I know that’s not a particularly original statement, but a couple of recent conversations brought it home.

Grandstanding and Hostages to Fortune

07 February 2020

Government grandstanding on issues it believes will curry favour is hardly new, and I fear that the climate change/renewable energy/end of fossil fuels issue is one where we can see it writ large. I am not a climate scientist (or indeed any sort of scientist), so I find it difficult to have a definitive view on what may be happening in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Japan, China and the EU

28 January 2020

In 1970, an analyst with Rand Corporation predicted that Japan would overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy in around the year 2000. I can certainly remember that that was a pretty fixed view in the 1980s, helped by the ruling exchange rates, and as late as 1995 the Los Angeles Times was forecasting that the tipping point was only months away.

Look Back - but not (necessarily) in Anger

22 January 2020

Generally, as time passes, decades do not start and finish with neat symmetry. The 1960s, for example, did not really begin until January 1963, when the Please Please Me album was released by the Beatles. However, sometimes the shift is more clear-cut – the 1980s began with a newly-elected UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan heralding a social and economic sea-change from the previous decade.

Cowboys and Indiums

15 January 2020

Minor metals, such as indium, rarely hit the headlines. But, when they do, it is not usually for the right reasons. So, to quote Neddie Seagoon, 'let me tell you a tale'...

Reflections on Regulation

08 January 2020

Let us go back again to the new LME employee in 1960. It was a time of patronage and great loyalty. The employee was welcomed to the company as a new member of the family. He would, in general, be given the opportunity for development and after a few years a decision would be made as to his (only ‘his’ in those days) future. The directors would make a considered judgement.