Winner Take All [antikvár]

Introduction IN THE SUMMER OF 2007 ^ Chinese company bought a mountain in Peru. More specifically, it bought the mineral rights to mine the resources contained in it. At fifteen thousand feet (forty-six hundred meters). Mount Toromocho is an imposing landmass—more than half the height of Mount Everest. It contains two billion tons of copper, one of the largest single copper deposits in the world. For a hefty fee of US$3 billion. Mount Toromocho's title transferred from the Peruvian people to the hands of the Chinese. China's commodity campaign is breathtaking. In just over a decade China has risen from relative insignificance to pole position in underwriting numerous resource-related transactions across the globe. China's Chinalco, the company that bought the rights to exploit the Peruvian mountain, also spent nearly US$13 billion in 2008 for a stake in Australia's aluminum sector^ In June 2009 Sinopec—a leading Chinese petrochemical company—purchased Addax Petroleum, which has sizeable assets in Iraq and Nigeria, for US$7.2 billion. Sinopec also bought a 40 percent stake in the Brazilian arm of Rep-sol, a Spanish energy company, for US$7 billion in October 2010 and part ownership in a joint-venture oil company Avith Russia's Rosneft (a leading oil and gas company) for US$3.5 billion in June 2006. Collectively, these inputs used to produce goods and services are known as commodities, and commodities permeate every aspect of modern daily living: the energy that powers cars, trucks, and electricity grids; water for the sustenance of all life forms; arable land that yields grains and other foodstuffs; and a long list of minerals used in everything from mobile telephony to television screens and as inputs to all sorts of machinery