The mainstream press focuses on issues such as population, dietary shifts and the impact of biofuels. One thing that doesn’t get talked about much may be the most important thing of all: a growing shortage of quality topsoil. Call it the topsoil crisis. Quality soil is loose, clumpy, filled with air pockets and teeming with life. It’s a complex microecosystem all its own. On average, the planet has little more than 3 feet of topsoil spread over its surface…
September 25th, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 4 comments | ContinuedArchive for Chris Mayer
Chris Mayer is a veteran of the banking industry, specifically in the area of corporate lending. A financial writer since 1998, Mr. Mayer's essays have appeared in a wide variety of publications, from the Mises.org Daily Article series to here in The Daily Reckoning. He is the editor of Mayer's Special Situations and Capital and Crisis - formerly the Fleet Street Letter.
Commodity Stock Prices Meltdown
The prices of commodities are likely to crack short term, but this will be just a tease. In the next decades, the prices of all future raw materials will be priced as just what they are: irreplaceable. Oil, for example, will never again be priced on the marginal cost of pumping a marginal barrel from some giant Saudi oil field, as has been the practice for most of the last 100 years of oil production.
September 10th, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 0 comments | Continued
The Offshore Drilling Boom Creates Demand for Infrastructure
The Adventures of Tintin is a comic book series started back in 1929. In one of these adventures, Tintin discovers oil on old American Indian lands. In a series of panels, a little construction boom transforms a wilderness into a busy city in a matter of hours.
August 14th, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 0 comments | Continued
Vinoy Park Hotel: A Wager That Changed St. Petersburg Forever
The bet is this: If Walter Hagan can drive three golf balls off the face of Laughner’s pocket watch without damaging it, Laughner will buy the 12-acre site across the street and build a resort there. I still have a hard time imagining it, but they place the pocket watch out on the lawn somewhere. Hagan succeeds, bouncing golf balls off the face of the watch, but never breaking it. Moments later…
July 30th, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 3 comments | Continued
Society for Austrian Economic Thought Forecasts Further Inflation
While in Vienna last week for the Society for Austrian Economic Thought meeting, I grabbed hold of the international edition of The Wall Street Journal. Over a classic Viennese breakfast of coffee, a boiled egg and pastry, I stumbled across an interview with Ted Forstmann, titled, “The Credit Crisis Is Going to Get Worse.” I hadn’t seen Forstmann’s name in years.
July 24th, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 0 comments | Continued
Skyrocketing Costs of Sulfuric Acid
Interesting how certain threads come together… I read recently that copper producers are complaining about the skyrocketing costs of sulfuric acid. A few days later, I read about Mosaic, a fertilizer company – about how the rising cost of sulfuric acid could impact its profit margins. Then last week, I came across a piece about how the cost of treating water is “going through the roof.” The main culprit is, once again, the rising price of sulfuric acid.
May 28th, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 0 comments | Continued
Has Oil Hit Its Peak Price?
Has oil hit its peak price or not? The answer to that question leads us to ask whether or not commodities are a bubble about to burst. Barron’s recent cover story on commodities came down on the side that the party was over. I don’t put a lot of faith in macro predictions – as no one can predict the future. But you can study track records. You can look at history. History reveals some interesting clues about what the future may hold.
May 22nd, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 0 comments | Continued
Are We in a Recession Now?
Many investors think that with a recession looming, or already here, it may be best to sit on the sidelines. One problem with this is that economic health is extremely difficult to gauge. It’s not as if you can slap on a pair of latex gloves and say to the economy, “Turn left and cough.” It’s possible we won’t know we were in a recession for sure until it’s over. But even so, recessions tend to be good times for investors who buy value.
March 20th, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 3 comments | Continued
The New Silk Road and Ibn Battuta
The new Silk Road is a revival of Ibn Battuta’s period. It’s a kind of integrated economic bloc that stretches from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Japan. Just look at the booming trade between China and the Middle East. It was a trickle of only $6 billion in 1995. By 2006, that number swelled to $69 billion.
February 14th, 2008 | Chris Mayer | 3 comments | Continued
Investing in India Is Too Risky in the Short-Term
Our journey started in the bustling port city of Mumbai (Bombay), home to Asia’s oldest stock exchange. Then we moved on to visit high-tech campuses in Bangalore and Hyderabad. The latter is only miles from the ancient city of Golconda, once renowned for its diamonds. From there, we were off to green Kochi on the [...]
December 13th, 2007 | Chris Mayer | 3 comments | Continued