Copper prices are up very sharply today, igniting across markets a reborn “reflation.” Treasuries along with eurodollar futures have been stuck in anti-“reflation” for quite some time. Copper, on the other hand, is not just now breaking from the pack. Going back to May 9, this important economic indication has been so far steadily bucking the trend.
When we talk about Dr. Copper it is important to settle on terms. When the price surged way out of historical proportions back in 2005, it was assumed that was in relation to the US housing mania. But 2005 was the top of that bubble, not the start. Instead, copper was reacting to the other part of the eurodollar-driven global imbalance – EM construction, especially China.
The first of China’s so-called ghost cities was begun around that time, with Communist authorities shifting state investment toward urbanization at the fastest possible rate. From the perspective of 2005, continued rapid growth was expected indefinitely. The export/industrial engine of China’s economy required workers, meaning the migration of hundreds of millions of subsistence farmers out of the rural fields and into modern cities already awaiting them.
Thus, copper’s peak in early 2011 coincides with perceptions (including those relating to global money) about how many new “ghost cities” China might still have yet to build. If the global recovery after the Great “Recession” was to be delayed, the Chinese might not need in the foreseeable future much more by way of new construction. The price of copper is therefore in large part a proxy for China’s view of that paradigm (especially given copper’s role in construction finance as collateral).
That perspective had only dimmed through the “rising dollar” period as it was realized there was the nontrivial economic risk the world economy might not recover at all. Copper sank all the way back under $2 during the worst of the 2015-16 downturn the metal was no longer pricing as a recession.
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