Your summary is spot on. This is what happens when you are too close to the US and GB. When you are their enemy they weaponize the USD and put economic sanctions on you, but when they are your friend they bully the market, drive prices down against fundamentals and emerge at the top of the register to have influence on the board. They just take our resources. This is how they just walked away with Newcrest mining, Australia's largest gold miner at a time when gold is becoming important again, and our government and regulators just stood by and let it happen. And now they are doing the same with Lithium and other resources.
The US and GB are not our friend. They don't have friends. They will only act in the best interest of themselves and it is about time Australia did the same.
The question is, what can be done about it? Some political courage would be a good start and take back Australia's sovereignty. Then a ban on short selling of companies under a certain market cap and or age, eg. in the first several years of a start up. This is particularly relevant to mining companies as the time frames from exploration to production can be many years. Good companies can be vulnerable in the early days only to be at the mercy of short selling speculators that add nothing to the benefit of the company or country, often destroying a company financially then taking the profits, often overseas, then moving on to the next easy mark.
This conversation needs to be kept going and just maybe it can grow some legs. The alternative is to just let continue to happen which will result in a downward spiral for a great many Australian companies and the detriment of our overall well being.
CXO Price at posting:
25.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)
