Benefit to Having Private Companies Own Natural Resources

3. What might be a benefit to having private companies own natural resources such as water? What might be a downfall to this same scenario?

The benefits of having private companies holding natural resources such as water are certainly increasing efficiency and improving service quality. This is because there was a conception that public utilities are poorly managed (for example all the governments provide this kind of services at low-cost eventually ending in losses). The important benefits of private companies owning natural resources is bearing the maintenance cost which is capital intensive and it requires enormous investments. Therefore the governments tend to find it increasingly attractive to privatise which these natural resources which is happening in almost all the developed countries but the only concern is the investor owned water utilities, which are roughly a third more efficient than the public counterparts but they're often available at higher rates. The downfall for this scenario is that it could limit who actually receives water – if the low-income individuals are outside the scope of receiving this water, it could lead to higher rates and lower service as it eventually turns out into a monopoly situation and there will be no accountability in the quality of services provided and national companies don't have a stake in local issues when privatised as it happened in Bolivia.

6. A stock broker in the movie said “In devastation, there is opportunity”. What does this mean?

 In the movie, Carlton Brown, a commodities trader says that devastations are blessings in disguise. He mentions that September 11th attack is a devastating act. He points out towards those traders who were not present in the building at that point of time. Most of these traders started buying gold or silver. He tells that these people are ruthless as they were least concerned about the incident that happened and all that they focussed is that there would be a significant increase in the prices of gold and silver in the upcoming days. As unethical as it seems but in terms of financials, these traders made huge profits with the fluctuation in the stock markets.