The Water Industry

Oil trades futures. Wheat, natural gas, copper, gold, silver trade commodities. Water doesn't. The most essential resource has no global exchange. Billions consume water without paying market prices. California farmers pay one hundred dollars per acre-foot. The government's actual cost is six thousand dollars per acre-foot. The difference gets subsidized. Farmers sell water's value back as commodity pricing. Scarcity remains hidden because price signals never reach farmers. Many African cities lose forty to sixty percent through broken infrastructure. Governments fear accurate water pricing creates social unrest. Scarcity becomes perpetual in surplus regions. The absence of a water futures market creates enormous hidden profits.