| China's voracious demand for every conceivable raw material — oil, steel, soybeans, gold, to name a few — once seemed to spell a future of endlessly rising commodity prices and falling living standards in developed nations. This was a Malthusian vision of scarcity: rising demand from the growing economies of the emerging world would couple with shrinking supplies to drive up the prices of natural resources. Gas prices would never come back down; gold would cost thousands of dollars an ounce.
The response, for many, was to bet big on China. Because it is hard to buy directly into China, many bought into the commodities that were being sucked into the gaping maw of the country's economy: oil from Russia, iron ore from Australia and so on...............................................Full Article: Source
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