I think it's actually a pretty good article covering players,...

I think it's actually a pretty good article covering players, challenges & using Goldman Sachs information

$25 billion is not much in the wider scheme of things - yes it's a lot for individual business & USA government would prefer private enterprise to contribute most of the cash & offer tax credits & specific funding linked to DoD - see LYC

MP caught in political & diplomatic jousting?

Surely the decoupling is just another part of global trade games

USA & China need each other despite competing & occasionally rallying national support & painting each other as sworn enemies

Until mass scale robotics mean human population of only millions can sustain life on earth & begin colonising beyond earth there's not much chance of mutual assured destruction occuring between USA & China in my opinion

Apple & Taiwan are interesting shared USA & Chinese competing interests

Tesla mega giga factories in China & Elon applauding the work ethic of Chinese workers which is perhaps more of a naive & sinister pat on the back of Xi for working people to the bone?

BYD & Buffet

BYD & Tesla

MP & Shenghe

Elon pretending & claiming rare earth magnets won't be needed in EV drivetrain

it's mostly bluff & blister forming part of negotiation games & the illusion of bit players & nobodies like us being connected to Elon or Xi or USA or UK or any government as anything more than expendable drone workers saddled with debt & a lifetime of consumption driven subtle slavery

I pity & perhaps envy those who fail to see through the PR games & propoganda of governments, corporations & their own addictions to neurotransmitters & hormone based drives

If the price is only $25 billion & let's say it was a 24 month undertaking then surely it wouldn't be that difficult for USA & a few strategic partners to chip in $5 billion each?

or maybe?

Let's see USA $10b to have most facilities on home soil, UK $8b to be 2nd biggest partner & usual historical disproportionate say,
$5b Australian contribution as the lap dog of USA & UK with no real say in anything beyond "over here" takes us to $23b. Canada $5b, France $5b, Germany? Spain? Who else wants to be part of this need to decouple from China rare earths? Japan?

My point is most of these countries need or benefit from Chinese trade even though at the same time they compete with China for market share in some of the consumption games

it's a tangled web where it appears governments take sides & have the interest of everyday citizens front & centre & COVID has reminded us all that humans can be one big happy family sometimes & come together to fight off disease & climate change & greed!

What a sick joke

It's less about you & me & more about a wake up call to governments & businesses that increasing population & increasing climate destruction & increasing extreme weather & recent decades of increased global tourism & migration & increasing competition for skilled migration all likely point to increasing risks of disease & pandemics

So let's not put all our manufacturing & mining eggs in one basket

Trade will continue, migration will continue, diseases will spread, technology will advance, scientific & medical research will be confined to big businesses & government grants designed to retain IP & control of competitive edges

Greed, influence, military might, excess, targeted foreign aid, global investment, tax havens & the legal rights of governments to put people to work to generate economic activity, consumption & pay taxes to keep the whole sh!t show rolling along

Yes there are rogue states & outliers who can't afford to adopt slick PR & propoganda of USA or UK style pleasantries & well mannered diplomacy

But even such outliers as potential proxies for larger powers are unlikely to risk destruction by following through with any of their nationalistic & hollow threats of war, the purpose is served when ordinary citizens buy into the greatness of their imaginary nation & pledging allegiance to blindly follow elected leaders or dictators using taxes, apocalyptic news feeds & the threat of bullets or jail for rebels or political opponents- they are far from being the same thing but perhaps just overt or subtle means to make people do stuff that is not actually in their own best interests or to distract or silence those who dare step outside their lane

It doesn't actually matter if COVID was a lab leak or symptom of sloppy wet market hygiene, exploitation & low level greed & consumption & mythical medicine remedies

COVID was bad for global trade & consumption & travel & business & taxes

maybe China thought it would be a sneaky opportunity to tilt economic change a little quicker in its favour? Seems a short sighted mistake & out of character for China regimes generally content to play the long game of slowly grinding down detractors & opponents over the decades

Maybe businesses more than governments require more robust supply chains & contingencies ? Maybe government & business share the same goals?

Perhaps I am way off & the Democrats really do want to build a better world where one day there's a nice narrative in your EV brochure that Elon & friends didn't use child labour or source rare earth or other critical minerals from USA enemies & that your job is not a meaningless cog in the pathological machinery of greed & division & perpetual competition always one step ahead & always painted as superior to genuine collaboration which we all know humans are not capable of ....

Maybe I am just bitter & twisted & jaded & cynical & should just accept that none of this really matters much as the sun inches towards frying earth & Mars becomes home to anyone or anything of value while earth is left to rot or becomes a reality tv show circus best viewed from afar ....

Anyway...... Xi & Biden & Sunak & Albo & Putin & Zelensky & all the other leaders of nations are not on your side or my side - businesses are on their own sides & some even have a say in government policy & propoganda to some extent

It's mostly a sick game best left to egomaniacs - in the mean time a walk in the park, to the supermarket & a trip to the beach year round with family in SEQ doesn't seem like a bad existence compared to the misfortune of others under the barrel of governments or the subtle & often slick spells of big businesses

Back to rare earth environmental concerns in China, you might want to look a little closer at Gina & Twiggy & Clive & the destruction & riches they have benefitted from & inflicted on workers & natural environments

Twiggy will be heading straight to hell if that's your chosen fairytale ending - no amount of green steel & hydrogen power in the DRC cam save his wretched soul & corrupted conscience - he was raised by, gifted by & is the product of a political dynasty in WA where he truly believes he is justified in the spats & tantrums he has over the family farm & trying to avoid royalty payments - it's all hilarious & people like him & Clive & Gina are justified in hiring extra security to watch over them night & day

How long until such individuals become portrayed as victims should they meet untimely deaths at the hands of nobodies in a misguided attempt to even the playing field? How would Murdoch & Stokes & politicians honour there fallen heroes of capitalism? What amazing stories to sell & tug at the heart strings of the dim witted & naive - people hate Bill Gates despite his best attempts at philanthropy - Twiggy & Gina & Clive barely even try beyond a few bespoke interests they deem worthy of self congratulatory photo opportunities - Gates will probably have a nice warm place waiting for each of them in hell - maybe his boosted brownie points means he gets to be the gatekeeper of Hades? I don't believe in Karma or any kind of afterlife unless it's actually the earth we live on - maybe that's why we are all here & lovely people like Xi & Putin & Gina & Twiggy & Clive are so important & able to wreak such havoc on the lives of us sheeple!

Gee what an epic ramble.....