Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World

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Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 113 ratings · 21 reviews

Commodities permeate virtually every aspect of modern daily living, but for all their importance—their breadth, their depth, their intricacies, and their central role in daily life—few people who are not economists or traders know how commodity markets work. Almost every day, newspaper headlines and media commentators scream warnings of impending doom--shortages of arable...more

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published June 5th 2012 by Basic Books (first published January 1st 2012)

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Nov 25, 2012 Orion rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book's main thesis is that China has established control on the majority of the world's limited physical resources and that the rest of us will have to ultimately deal with the repercussions. The author demonstrates an amazing facility for pulling data from various sources to support her conclusions, and does it in a relatively simple manner for the popular audience to understand.
It took me a long time to finish reading this 225 page book because it is so depressing. For me some of the fin...more

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Aug 20, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

I saw the author interviewed on Bill Maher and decided to pick up the book before my next trip to China.

I'm glad I did. It helped to put snippets of news stories about China and expansionist plans in developing countries into real context. China has a plan - it's a long-range, comprehensive, global reaching quest for raw materials that will fuel the engine of their economy for decades to come. Theirs is not a mission to improve the global standard of living, but if a country needs a new port to...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Jorge rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics-economics

Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World by Dambisa Moyo

"Winner Take All" is an even-handed assessment on China's race for resources and the implications this has for the rest of the world. The book's spotlight is on China's central role in the commodities dynamics. Best-selling author, international economist and a native of Zambia, Dr. Moyo has written a professional yet accessible book that tackles the following broad themes: economic implications of China's...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Joe Chernicoff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another book which should be read by our presidential candidates. As one who has had some undergrad and graduate work in agricultural economics, I readily appreciate her practical concern re: commodities, ad real-life look at economics, which, as Dr. Moyo succinctly informed a questioner during her presentation on BookTV, the class room is one look, but reality is what you need; too often, as I quickly realized while taking some graduate courses, there is often no relationship between what is re...more

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Sep 01, 2012 Liz Murray rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is probably the first economics book I've read, but it goes far beyond simple economics. I saw Dambisa Moyo on The Daily Show and I remember thinking she was maybe a bit pro China. While in South Africa a couple of people I met mentioned the Chinese influence and they didn't speak highly of it however after reading this book I see it in greater perspective. China is helping build infrastructure in many parts of Africa, including hospitals, schools and roads. There will always be reservation...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Potty rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book shows you the fact the world will face a looming financial crisis in regard to "commodity." Now, China has strong power in it's resource strategy, especially in Africa. Dambisa Moyo used to be a worker of Goldman Sachs, then she can explain from fer experience what's going on within the commodities market, and forecast the future,or scenario in accordance with the recent trend. China's investment to resources in developing countries isn't limited around the mines. China is constructing...more

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May 14, 2013 Ndeye Sene rated it 5 of 5 stars

For the Full review, Visit: http://booksundertheneemtree.com/2013...

We have all heard strange stories about China’s presence in Africa. From
The major question here I think is: What is China exactly doing in Africa? What does it mean for us Africans? And for the world? Luckily, my favourite economist decides to write a book and answers these very important questions.
The Truth of the matter is that the reasons for China’s presence in Africa are far from obvious. There are a lot of contradictory re...more

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Sep 25, 2012 Max rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good book! Personally, I have loathed the European centrism towards Africa and the seemingly unbreakable aid-cycle and victimization. Very rarely do I read a book that shares this view, and DM's WTA is one of the few. She shows that China approaches African countries as trading partners, providing cash and infrastructure projects in exchange for their commodities. Not as helpless victims that need pity. I'm so happy to see Africans like DM have also opened their eyes.
However, this was not DM's m...more

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Aug 03, 2012 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: economics, china

I enjoyed Winner Take All as an economics primer where the commodities markets are concerned; there was much attention given to such things as speculation in the commodities markets, when and how governments should intervene and what such intervention does to commodity prices.

China almost seemed to be a secondary focus after the basic explanations of commodity markets, although such explanations to a layman such as myself were invaluable to understanding the overall thesis of the book.

Where I f...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Graham Mulligan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Winner Take All, China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the Rest of the World
Dambisa Moyo, Harper Collins, 2002

This book is about supply and demand. Commodities, specifically arable land, water, energy and minerals are in demand as the global population grows and gets wealthier. More people living in cities and with middle class expectations means increased demand for goods and services – everywhere. One of these commodities, the global supply of arable land, is not entirely available...more Winner Take All, China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the Rest of the World
Dambisa Moyo, Harper Collins, 2002

This book is about supply and demand. Commodities, specifically arable land, water, energy and minerals are in demand as the global population grows and gets wealthier. More people living in cities and with middle class expectations means increased demand for goods and services – everywhere. One of these commodities, the global supply of arable land, is not entirely available to buy or rent easily. Property rights or freehold title, although common in the Western, developed countries, is not practiced in most developing countries. There, the land is owned by the state and only leased to citizens for whatever use. This is particularly the case in South America and Africa and it is there that China seeks to secure agricultural resources by making government-to-government deals.

‘Peak oil’ is a term first coined in 1956, referring to US oil production projected to decline after 1970. World ‘peak oil’ projections have varied from 2030 to 2050 but the ‘peak’ date isn’t the point. It’s what happens when we look at the relationship between supply and demand. “As it gets more difficult to extract oil from harder-to-reach places, the risks of cost inflation (go) higher. And this … limits global supply at a time when demand is certain to rise”. Oil sellers are in the driver’s seat which means control of production, whether by national governments or wealthy individuals (who then control governments) tends to look less and less democratic. Four-fifths of world petroleum reserves are in politically unstable or contested areas (Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela). It is in this context that China is accelerating its energy consumption. Right now oil consumption per person, per year, is as follows: America – 25 barrels; China – 2.2 barrels; India – 1 barrel.

How China acts to secure access to the commodities it needs is the theme of the rest of the book. Moyo describes a three-pronged approach – aid, trade and investment. Financial transfers are in the form of aid (mostly to Africa) or commercial loans. The trade approach is a familiar pattern, loan money to a targeted consumer who can only spend that money buying from the lender (the Marshall Plan is a good example of this). The US gives around US$20 billion in credit today, while China now gives US$250 billion to its clients. Investments in foreign companies by China really ramped up in 2005 (when Lenovo bought IBM’s PC unit for US$1.25 billion). Total investments prior to that were US$2 billion, while the 2005 total equaled US$12 billion, including the Lenovo deal. Over five years (up to 2010) the total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) equaled US$400 billion (Australia – US$42.5 billion; United States US$28 billion; Brazil US$20 billion). In 2010 Chinese FDI in Canada equaled US$14.1 billion!

Vertical and horizontal alignment is part of China’s investment strategy. Shipping ports, like Greece’s port of Piraeus, are being upgraded as well as ports in Pakistan, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. Moyo describes three investment strategies used by China to gain access to targeted resources: direct purchase, swaps (guaranteed purchase of all production of the asset for a specified period, like the FIPPA deal currently being done with Canada) and indirect access through buying stakes in a corporation and then controlling its investment decisions (like the Nexen deal). You can monitor these yourself at: http://www.heritage.org/research/repo...

China’s trade deals are notable for their win-win characteristics. Of course China needs the commodities but the host countries also have significant needs met by dealing with China. Infrastructure projects like road building (we saw plenty of evidence of Chinese engineers supervising road building in Kenya in May, 2012) provide much needed jobs.

A common argument put forth by Western officials is that China is over-paying for commodities, thus distorting the market. The Chinese see the role of government in trade deals as appropriate. Moyo explains the difference in approach (between free-market capitalism and state-led capitalism) as a difference in ‘utility function’. Utility function measures the satisfaction gained from consuming a good or service. All governments may have the same utility function, the betterment or improvement of their population, but they may differ in the scope and means of government to increase satisfaction. For China, bringing its large population closer to ‘satisfaction’ is paramount if it wants to avoid dissatisfaction and potential turmoil or uprisings. The price paid for commodities, seen in this context, is not too high.

The attention given to commodities by Western investors has changed in the last decade. Large financial investors (for example, pension funds and index funds) were more likely to invest in commodities than the market traders. The change in the last decade has produced an unanticipated result. Previously, market traders invested in cash-producing assets (equipment, companies, ideas or mines, and oil wells), something that would produce a stream of cash. Shifting to commodities investments means buying ‘consumption assets’ where the benefit is in the use of the purchase (like houses or other consumables). In the commodities market investors count on the price going higher in the future. We saw this in 2008 with the housing bubble, and in 2000 with the tech bubble.

Access to the key commodities like energy, is vital to security of any nation. It isn’t uncommon for sovereign states to control production of oil, for example. In fact, seventy percent of current oil production is state-owned. Not only that, oil is held in reserve by national governments in order to smooth out price fluctuations in times of supply crises. The US has capacity for 727 million barrels in reserve, enough for a hundred days, and has used this reserve as recently as June 2011, in face of the political uncertainty of the Arab Spring and Libya in particular. State intervention in the commodity market is not unique to oil. Both Europe and the US intervene in agriculture. National governments also manage access to resources by blocking company takeover bids that are deemed unsuitable. Between 1988 and 2008 the US government rejected nearly two thousand such bids. Moyo concludes, “state meddling in the commodity markets is endemic” whether through protectionism, subsidies, hoarding or posturing. The free-market interplay of supply and demand gives way to politics often.

Is China’s quest for resources a form of new colonialism? European colonialism was based on raw material extraction and used unequal power to control weaker states or indigenous populations. Sometimes motivations were altruistic such as missionary work or spreading modern science or European political systems (democracy). China doesn’t appear to be motivated by domination over sovereign states but over resources. It is actually disinterested in assuming responsibility for social or political affairs in the countries it deals with. Some Chinese labour is exported to work on projects funded by China but not to the extent some Western media have reported. Moyo cites the number of Chinese workers to local workers in various countries to support this. Where the numbers of Chinese workers is higher usually depends on levels of skill involved such as engineers. I saw a number of these engineers working on road building in Kenya, as I mentioned earlier. China has nearly completed the build-out of a nation-wide road network at home, much like the US did in the 1950’s, and now has a large pool of very experienced road builders available for foreign projects. One such project we witnessed is the primary road linking Mombassa, on the coast, to the interior of the continent, running across Kenya to Nairobi, into Uganda and Kampala and on to Rwanda.

Moyo concludes this book with a look at the ‘endgame’ of the commodity depletion using the shortage of food caused by waste, misallocation of food and bad food production policies as an example. One study showed forty percent waste in the US; thirty percent waste in the UK. This means more methane gas and bad greenhouse effects; loss of water used for producing the wasted food; wasted capital on transportation, packaging and retailing. Misallocation of food is ironically obvious when you match one billion starved bodies with one billion obese bodies. Food production is skewed by incentives and disincentives. The US and some Europeans, especially France, use subsidy and tariffs this way. Food protectionism mans lost potential food exports from countries in Africa and South America that could make a huge impact on employment and needed revenue.
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Jun 17, 2012 Andrew rated it 3 of 5 stars

One-Minute Review
Big bad China? In Winner Take All, Dambisa Moyo, who burst onto the literary-political scene with Dead Aid, suggests that China’s growing influence isn’t all bad. While recent books like Mark Steyn’s After America and Niall Ferguson’s Civilization exhibit concern about the West's declining economic and political clout, Moyo’s new book describes more nuanced global changes. China’s increasing consumption of and control over the world’s finite resources do drive up commodity costs...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Candy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reading-challenge

This sounded like an extremely interesting book given my love of current events/politics/history. Found it extremely dry and boring. The author overwhelms you with so many statistics that unless you have a background in finance or economics you end up not really getting what she is trying to point out. Found myself reading pages over and over trying to make sense of it.

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Nov 04, 2012 Rick Austin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating read about the race for a scarce set of commodities and how impacting this will be sooner than we realize. Somber reflection on how ill prepared our country is compared to China. Whether you agree or not, China is preparing for their future while we continue to race to the edge of a potential cliff at full speed.

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Mar 17, 2013 David Cowhig rated it 4 of 5 stars

A well-balanced China in Africa book. Naturally China is following its own interests -- the new players on the block can by its presence gives African countries new opportunities for development.

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Jun 06, 2012 !Tæmbuŝu marked it as to-read

Shelves: ebook-available, economics, geopolitics

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Reviewed by The Independent (30 Jun 2012), The Guardian (1 Jul 2012)

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Aug 02, 2012 Danielle marked it as to-read

Shelves: scholarly

I saw the author on The Daily Show and (somewhat surprisingly) her books sounds super interesting.

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Jun 03, 2013 Robert Chapman rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: politcs, economy

This book does deliver that it promises. I gave it a low rating as I found it to be very dry, longer than it needed to be, and generally hard to stay engaged with.

It does a good job of describing in great detail how China is moving to protect it's future in terms of fuel, food, commodities, and resources. If a detailed breakdown including statistical charts is what you need, then this book will provide it, however, I did not find it to be a leisurely read for someone who has a passing interest i...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Doug rated it 4 of 5 stars

She's right. China is planning ahead and acting wisely and the US is going to pay dearly for being shortsighted.

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Apr 30, 2013 Straton Mwashighadi rated it 5 of 5 stars

A great read, a good compilation of the worlds resources numbers...great work. Very Informative

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Jun 10, 2013 Rohit rated it 4 of 5 stars

Too good book

It's scary to know how China has manipulated the world order , somewhat and is in buying spree for all resources ..
Well told , about the unequal allocation of minerals and greed of the world ..

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Oct 23, 2012 Jeremiah Ross rated it 5 of 5 stars

Moyo gave an excellent, well researched, report on the current state of Chinese activities without fear-mongering or moralizing. Certainly one of the most enjoyable reads I have had of late.

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About Dambisa Moyo

Dr. Dambisa Moyo is an international economist who writes on the macroeconomy and global affairs.

She is the author of the New York Times Bestsellers "Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa", "How The West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly And the Stark Choices Ahead" and "Winner Take All: China s Race for Resources and What It Means for the World".

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Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa

How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly--and the Stark Choices Ahead

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