As the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank raised interest rates last week for the first time in 10 years in response to what it said was strength in the U.S. economy, economically sensitive commodities such as industrial metals and crude oil continued to plumb new cycle lows. Either these commodities are about the turn the corner as renewed strength in the United States–the biggest buyer of commodities next to China–revives industrial metal and crude oil demand–or the Federal Reserve is misreading the tea leaves and crashing commodity prices signal a world and U.S. economy in distress. Market analysts like to say that copper is the metal with a Ph.D. in economics. Because of copper’s central role in the modern economy, it often reliably forecasts the direction of the economy. Since copper reached its peak at the beginning of 2011 above $4.50 per pound […]