Goldman Sachs on Shortages: 'This is a Molecule Crisis--We're Out of Everything'

Jeff Currie, the closely-followed head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., told Bloomberg TV Monday that h has never seen commodity markets pricing in the shortages they are right now.

“If 2008 was a financial crisis, this is a molecule crisis,” Currie said. “We are out of everything. I don’t care if it’s oil, gas, coal, copper, aluminum, you name it we’re out of it.”

Several markets are seeing “super-backwardation” in the prices for commodities futures. That is a phrase that indicates traders willing to pay big premiums for immediate supply.

Prices are rising sharply not because of financial speculation but because of outright shortages, Currie said.

“I’ve been doing this 30 years and we’ve never seen markets like this. This is textbook shortages,”Currie said.