The Financial Post:

  • the biggest reason prices have been soaring is that investors are now understanding the future supply and demand reality.

    The demand side China and India are undertaking a Marshall Plan every two years, building massive infrastructure, urbanizing their populations and industrializing. The Beijing Olympics will open the world's eyes to what is going on there this summer. Recent estimates are that in the next 17 years, about 300 million Chinese living in rural areas will be moved to cities which have yet to be built. They will want roads, cars, buildings and streetlights. The equivalent of five New Yorks, and some 50,000 skyscrapers, are on the drawing boards. Already, some 174 subway systems are under construction and a power plant is completed every month. There are already 200 cities in China bigger than Dallas. In addition are the economic development plans underway in Brazil, Central Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Asia. More than half of the world economy is now located in emerging, or poorer, countries.