Welcome to Lord Copper

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

When the wind don't blow

24 November 2021

Beautiful late autumn weather in southern England currently - clear skies, crisp air and barely a breath of wind. Ah, wait though. No wind means no wind-generated electricity, and we all know what that means, don’t we?

Money from the Shadows

11 November 2021

The term ‘shadow money’ suggests criminality and wrongdoing; ‘eurodollar’ sounds much more respectable.

Save the core for the Floor

03 November 2021

It’s been a while since my last scribbling. Our lives often take us in a direction which is most unlike the one we planned. I had planned to contribute more frequently to Lord Copper in the past year but it did not pan out that way for a number of reasons. Pretty much like the day I walked into that youth employment bureau 52 years ago planning to ignore whatever they had to offer me. I wanted to become a professional footballer but ended up an accounts clerk at an LME Ring Dealing Member and global trader of physical metals.

The Art of the Possible

27 October 2021

“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable - the art of the next best”, said Otto von Bismarck, the man who achieved the unification of myriad German states, duchies, principalities, electorates and the rest, under the leadership of Prussia. Of course, to do it, he instigated three wars - against Denmark, Austria and France - so we can probably say his methods were not universally popular, and one of the results of the unification was the strengthening of the Hohenzollern dynasty, which reached its peak (nadir?) with Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Great War. So not all good, then.

LME Week 2021 - Back in Town

14 October 2021

After the cancellation last year caused by the global Covid pandemic lockdowns, autumn 2021 has seen the traditional annual LME Dinner Week back in the metals business calendar, as industry bigwigs returned to London to wine, dine, fix long-term deals and generally chew over market prospects.

Tin Master

06 October 2021

A few months ago, when I wrote an article here about the likely closure of the LME Ring (obviously before its Lazarus-like revival….), I received the following email from a very good old friend:

Energy hysteria and metal prices

29 September 2021

When I wrote last week that we needed to see some input from the grown-ups into the question of energy policy and security, I was working on the basis that there were some grown-ups around. Sad to say, I think I may have been over-optimistic; the evidence of the last few days shows what looks like a disturbing mass hysteria amongst a large part of the population of the UK.