Commodities: A Cautionary Tale

With finances running low, the Venezuelan government is looking to divert funds from the country's main income earner: the state oil company.

Countries are seeking greater national control over their natural resources these days. While this pursuit is consistent with long-term trends, the medium-term outlook is more cyclical.

Traditional uses for copper, such as in electricity transmission and construction materials, will still dominate, even as electric vehicle use bumps up demand for the metal. This reality puts its suppliers in a complicated position.

Yemen's Houthi rebels managed to dissuade Saudi Arabian oil tankers from transiting the crucial Bab el-Mandeb strait, affecting the ability of one of the world's leading energy suppliers to deliver to their customers.

As the most dominant source for in-demand cobalt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is trying to profit as much as it can with weighty new mining regulations.

President Nicolas Maduro and his administration have done whatever it takes to hold onto power in Venezuela. After the country's presidential election, the United States will start to consider heavier sanctions.

The group of countries that agreed to cut crude oil production and reverse the slide in oil prices are set for financial gain, while consumers can expect to pay more.

An international panel ordered Caracas to pay ConocoPhillips for nationalizing its assets in 2007. To collect, the U.S. oil company is going after Venezuelan facilities in the Caribbean; that move threatens to further erode the country's stability.

The country's presidential candidates all recognize that a dozen free trade deals over the past decade haven't produced the results many Colombians expected. But the question of how to move forward is where consensus yields to debate.

After more than a century of bad blood between Chile and Bolivia, a ruling from an international court might finally allow La Paz to win back what it wants most.