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> "Why would such a valuable resource be squandered? Basically, it's because the price of helium does not reflect its value. Most of the world's supply of heliu
by gridlockd 7y ago
> "Why would such a valuable resource be squandered? Basically, it's because the price of helium does not reflect its value. Most of the world's supply of helium is held by the United States National Helium Reserve, which was mandated to sell off all of its stockpile by 2015, regardless of price"
This doesn't make sense to me. If the market price doesn't reflect its value, why wouldn't somebody just buy up all the artificially cheap helium and stockpile it, to sell it at its "true" market value later?
We're still putting Helium in party balloons, after all. Why aren't all the "high value" users of Helium hedging for a time when Helium becomes more scarce? Is this really a market failure, or is there something missing from this narrative?
- dmurray 7y agoIt's expensive to store, and it may not be worth building the storage facilities if you only get to use them once. So the market is not perfectly efficient here. But yes, this argument explains why the "running out of helium" narrative is overblown.
- gridlockd 7y agoThe market has vehicles for this, e.g. purchasing rights to the helium while leaving it underground. Perhaps that's not what the law allows for, however.