So, will trading in steel scrap futures really present long-term protection from price fluctuation risk? Haven’t the recent large swings in oil prices been tied at least partially to the trading of oil futures? Call me naive or whatever you want  – from my vantage point, it seems like just another opportunity for a few to get rich at the peril of many others, including adding additional risk to our economy. What are your thoughts on this?

So, tell me how this is equitable? Demand is way down and a company already struggling has to bring workers back to do what work? There’s only so much cleaning and maintenance that can be done. How is that right? If you do the math, the possible severance works out to almost $19,000 for each employee! Cut that in half and it’s still more than most would get. Two to four weeks severance is quite common in the “real” world the rest of us live in. And we wonder why steel mills and other manufacturing plants have been moved to other countries. Our society has tumbled so far into the abyss of entitlements, we may never be able to extricate ourselves.

California better consider well how they approach this problem or they could find themselves with tons (literally) of junk cars on their hands. In the article, California state officials are hot after stopping shredding companies from using fluff, the leftover material from recycling metals from cars, as daily landfill cover. If they manage to restrict fluff from landfills, shredder operations in California won’t be able to process cars or appliances. So, instead of fluff in the landfills, they’ll have mountains of old cars and appliances. Careful what you wish for…

Proper e-waste recycling is something we all should be trying to do. Without it, tons of toxic materials make it into landfills or even worse, overseas where they are dismantled in an extremely hazardous way to salvage the precious metals inside, all without thought of the damage to thousands of human lives.

The sad thing is, that even when a municipality contracts with a “reputable” recycler, sometimes it still ends up overseas. This web site has a “60 Minutes” segment that shows how this happens. Before you take your e-waste to a collection event, encourage your city to fully investigate where material is sent and by whom it is processed. Otherwise, it could just end up in some foreign country, polluting and destroying the lives of thousands.

Ok, so it’s not a race to see who has the fastest car, it’s still an interesting race. Who do you think will win the race? Do you even care? What do you think would make it a better race? Come on, share your opinion, you know you want to.

To me, one thing that would really make a difference here is if both companies would find a way to price their cars so that the the average person could afford one. Both claim their vehicles are for everyone. Well, I don’t know about you but I don’t happen to have $45k floating around to slap down for one of these new cars. The last car I bought cost me $15k and that was plenty for me.  I know, I know, it wasn’t brand new (only 1 year old) but even if it had been, the price would have been somewhere closer to $25k, not $45k.

Anyway, so what about you, what do you think?