ABSTRACT
One of the greatest challenges facing humankind is posed by the demand for materials that humans need (or at least want) to meet their desires for higher material standards of living. The economic effects of this demand were illustrated painfully during the approximately 2005–2008 period when demand for materials such as crude oil, aluminum, copper, lead, zinc, phosphate minerals (for fertilizer), and other commodities sent prices of these and many other materials soaring. This demand was fueled by a number of factors operating throughout the world, including the evolving economies of highly populated China and India and buying binges of consumers in the United States made overconfident by rapidly increasing housing values, increasing prices of stock, and easy credit on credit cards. In early 2008, it began to look like the price of crude oil would soar far above $150 per barrel, gasoline would surpass $5.00 per gallon in the United States (still inexpensive by European standards), and the demand for grain for food and animal feed would continue to increase beyond record levels. The prices of metals had risen such that thieves were raiding unoccupied houses to steal aluminum and copper as other thieves were even cutting catalytic converters from vehicles to get to their precious metal contents. Around mid-2008, a wrenching adjustment occurred as it became obvious that such price increases were unsustainable, prices of commodities such as crude oil dropped drastically, and home prices in the United States fell dramatically as countries throughout much of the world experienced the worst economic downturn (a very big recession or a mini-depression) since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As of 2016, prices of commodities had recovered somewhat, though they were still low for some grains and especially petroleum, which was in oversupply.
