Copper, copper, copper. How Americans feel about AI & dumbing down pop.
Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
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Karl Horst Hödicke, Holland, Hd. Kl. A, 1964
Source: Staedelmuseum
Inequality drivers consumption patterns in the US.
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The world’s copper supply is heavily dependent on a small number of rather old mines.
China itself only produces around 9 per cent of the world’s mined copper, but that figure rises to around 20 per cent after taking into account overseas projects it has ownership stakes in, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. As with rare earth metals, its real grip on the copper market comes at the processing stage. China now controls around half of copper smelting capacity worldwide. The US, by contrast, has just two operational copper smelters. China is also by far the largest copper consumer, accounting for around 58 per cent of 2025 demand, according to Benchmark. The rapid expansion of its grid network was the single largest driver of copper demand growth in the past two years, according to the IEA.
Source: FT
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“Copper screaming to all time highs at the same moment China’s industrial profits are collapsing tells you the global economy has split into two realities.” - This highly ideological, AI-powered “writing” by “SightBringer” on twitter is quite something:
“Copper screaming to all time highs at the same moment China’s industrial profits are collapsing tells you the global economy has split into two realities. One reality is demand destruction, margin compression, overcapacity, and deflation inside legacy manufacturing systems. China lives there right now. Overbuilt factories. Weak domestic demand. Export dependency. Falling profits. The other reality is physical inevitability. Power, compute, grids, electrification, defense, data centers. This reality does not care about consumer confidence. It does not care about GDP optics. It does not slow politely. It demands materials or it fails. Copper sits at the intersection of those two worlds. That is why this move feels confusing if you are still using old mental models. Copper is not rising because growth is booming. Copper is rising because systems cannot function without it. This is the deepest truth most people are missing: We are pricing maintenance of complexity.”
How do Americans feel about AI - fascinating data from top Democratic-party pollster David Shor
When you ask Americans whether they are optimistic or pessimistic about AI, optimism beats pessimism by ~5 points. The primary fault lines are age, gender, and race - young people, men, and racial minorities are the most optimistic about AI.
N=30,900 , fielded 12/1 to 12/10
Striking concentrations of optimism in the Bay Area and across much of the Southern United States.
Source: David Shor on X
Karl Horst Hödicke, Straßenarbeiter, 1976
Dumbing down pop
Karl Horst Hödicke, Klein Gobi, 1980s (Öl auf Leinwand 115 x 150 cm)
Source: Sammlung Penz
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