1965

1965

In 1965 Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I), the largest steel company west of the Mississippi, was still blowing and going: coke, fence, nails, pig, pipe, tube, sheet, shapes, strip… if it was steel, or steel related, they made it.

In 1955 most of the Mesabi Range had been depleted of high grade ore.  However, the steel industry was able to improve intermediate grade ore though processes such as sintering and pelletizing.  Ore was shipped from Argentina, as well.  The steel business would last forever.  Aluminum could never become a cost-effective competitor.

By 1975 it was almost all gone.  J&L folded and survives in part in the form of Republic Engineered Steel (RES).  I don’t remember the exact date that CF&I folded: they made a minor comeback later… nothing like 1965.  Today, steel exists mostly in the form of re-melted and remanufactured scrap.  Big steel mills are a ghost of the past.  Most steel is produced in mini-mills.

We could never run out of raw ore, could we?  Yet, we mined enough ore to change the direction of magnetic north by a significant amount.  Most of the intermediate grade ore is seriously depleted.  Nobody ever figured out a practical way to make steel out of iron pyrites… the sulfur eats the furnace brick.

Today, crude oil is for all intents and purposes, gone.  Fracking hides the depletion.  That being said, fracking releases lite-tight oil, not crude.  After that there is shale-oil.  The anti-coal fraternity hates “dirty” fuels; just wait until they see shale-oil: shale-oil makes coal look clean.  It remains to be seen if shale-oil can be forced to produce in-situ.

The oil business will last forever, won’t it?  Good luck with that.

The greater reality is that we need greater development of solar cells.  Wind farms are a risk to aircraft, to wildlife, and require the continuation of expensive infrastructure to exist.  Solar cells are capable of eliminating the expensive and massive electrical transmission infrastructure, putting electricity production into the reach of every homeowner.  Improved electrical storage devices would eliminate the current limiting factors: solar cells only produce when the sun shines.  The discovery of a direct production method of electricity into combustible liquid would ensure that we have cars to drive for the indefinite future.

Otherwise, we are on the cusp of returning to the horse economy of 1880; it creates a certain amount of noxious gasses: but, it is, otherwise, environmentally friendly… and it will make your garden grow… although, the housefly population will return in massive numbers.

In psychology, this is known as denial.  In government, this is called business as usual.  Everybody believes that a growth economy is possible and sustainable.  The raw harsh math of the exponential equation proves to us, the deadly cold fact that a growth economy is neither possible nor sustainable: yet, here we sit, in denial, doing nothing.

This is the road to disaster, famine, and the return of plague.

This is not a Steel problem.  This is not an Oil problem.  This is not even a renewable energy resources problem.  This is an economics problem.  The facts of exponential equations apply to your business, your industry, your property, your retirement, your savings; your children, your family... without exception.  Indefinitely sustained growth is simply not possible.  The fact that you did or did not come through the recent tragic years with your retirement intact is irrelevant to the overall facts.  The United States as a whole, as a measurable central financial tendency has crashed repeatedly since 1965.  If you escaped the plight of the herd, you were just lucky... the rest of us are lemmings.