Jeremy Siegel says U.S. sleepwalked into rare-earths crisis as China tightens its grip

China’s tightening grip over the minerals that power advanced technologies has moved from long-term strategic concern to immediate economic threat—and the U.S. is woefully unprepared, Wharton’s Jeremy Siegel warned.

“It’s scandalous that we don’t have a rare earth strategic reserve,” Siegel told CNBC’s Squawk Box Monday, calling it a major security failure. “We let China monopolize 90% of refining rare earth materials. Where were we, realizing the importance of these?”

Siegel urged the U.S. to build a rare earth stockpile similar to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was created in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo left the country exposed to geopolitical blackmail.

His warning comes just days after Beijing unveiled sweeping new export controls that would require companies worldwi