https://dailyreckoning.com/the-coming-lithium-wars/
Last week, I was watching one of my favorite YouTube channels, CaspianReport. Its latest video is “India discovers $410 billion lithium deposit.”
Nice one.
CaspianReport has a particular affinity for the BRICS countries and their allies, to be fair.
Four of the following five listed videos are:
1. China plans to dethrone the dollar
2. Pakistan is dying (and that is a global problem)
3. Russia plans to annex Belarus by 2030
4. Russia and Iran join forces with India
I love watching these videos because I’ve been to many countries and find their politics fascinating.
Many Western analysts either don’t look at this stuff, don’t understand this stuff, or don’t want to give “the enemy” any ideas.
After all, Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs Asset Management coined the term “BRICs” in a marketing ploy to get his research read.
Now, they’re America’s #1 headache. And for good reason.
And that headache grows larger daily, not least because of India’s lithium find.
But first things first.
If the Lithium Doesn’t Cross Borders, Will Armies?
It’s commonly believed that Claude Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) coined the phrase, “When goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will.”
Sadly, he never said that. But many, including myself, believe it to be true nonetheless.
The Liberty Fund did a bit of digging and found that Otto T. Mallery came the closest to writing the phrase.
In his book, Economic Union and Durable Peace, Mallery advocates mutually beneficial economic agreements for the following three reasons:
1. Economic bargains which are likely to be kept are preferable to political agreements which are likely to be broken.
2. If soldiers are not to cross international boundaries on missions of war, goods must cross them on missions of peace.
3. Unless shackles can be dropped from trade, bombs will inevitably drop from the sky. (p.10)