3. several of the South American countries, benefitted from vast new mineral exports. Japan without resources of her own emerged as a post-war miracle. But the dream is dissolving. The new democracies are disappearing and being replaced ty totalitarian despotisms. Unstable governments are the rule rather than the exception. The United Nations has been captured by those who are opposed to our ways and who seem to have no understanding of how the world economic order works. The OPEC example has emboldened other nations to form cartels in the hope of exacting higher prices. With no effective way of enforcing international law or rights available now that gunboat diplomacy has been abandoned, foreign investment is being harshly treated in many quarters. Properties are expropriated with inadequate or no compensation. Discriminatory taxes are levied. Export licensing is imposed. Foreign ownership is limited in new ventures and pressure is brought to bear to force the sale of all or part of exisitng ventures at bargain prices. State-owned or controlled enterprises compete increasingly with the private sector. All these adverse political developments are taking place at a time when rampant inflation is everywhere and worse abroad than here at home. This has made it increasingly difficult to estimate the capital costs of new ventures accurately. What all this suggests is that there is a very real possibility that there could be widespread shortages of key raw materials as that part of the world that is geologically promising becomes too risky politically to attract and hold foreign investment. When the international flow of investment dries up, mineral supplies from the developing countries will diminish. Faced with the prospect of