‘Scandalous’: Top economist 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.