Demand Shocks Fuel Commodity Price Booms and Busts

Demand shocks due to rapid industrialization have driven commodity price booms throughout history. As periods of industrialization lose steam and supply catches up, busts follow after about 10 years. A new dataset of price and production levels of 12 commodities provides evidence of this behavior from 1870 to 2013. Dr. Stuermer presented on this article’s topic at the JPMCC’s August 2017 international commodities symposium.