Copper prices can double in 2011: Yardeni

Edward Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research, said on Bloomberg TV that copper prices can double in 2011.

Copper has performed extremely well recently and already rallied from about $3.00 per pound in June of this year to more than $4.10 per pound now. While many forecasters expect it to go higher, few are as optimistic as Yardeni.

Yardeni thinks there will be a shortage of copper.

He calls copper a 'rare earth metal' because there are no substitutes for it in products like cars and home appliances.

As the global economy recovers, people will want those products.

Yardeni said it's not just people in China who will be the source of demand, but those from Indonesia, Brazil and many other emerging market countries.

These people want to prosper and have a better standard of living, and I think they're going to get it, said Yardeni.

Moreover, big financial institutions like JPMorgan and BlackRock are set to launch copper exchange traded funds (ETFs). These instruments will allow investors/speculators to hoard copper and thus pushes prices even higher.