I snuck into a room where a training class was taking place during their break so I could check my email and saw a slide on the screen describing the temperatures at which metals melt. The exception was that the temp for steel was the temp at which it begins to lose strength. The temp listed? 2600-2700 degrees. Please note that JetA does not burn near that temp yet despite the insurance industries acknowledgment that it wont lose strength at that temp the official gov story is that 3 steel towers came down for the first and last time due to fire on 9-11.
There is lots of talk about the dollar collapsing. Well of course it is. It is fiat money. One might as well exclaim water is wet. And I am certainly pessimistic about the future of the dollar, but I don't think it will fall just yet. The Gov simply wont allow it to happen under the current President's watch. Look for the interest rate to fall over the next three months, possibly starting in January, in an attempt to awaken the housing market giant again. There isnt much more life left in that giant, his work has been done and his time is over. Look for him to be pressed into service for a while longer.
I would expect another 28-30 months of relative prosperity (as it now seems to be defined) before a serious slump. I base this on a few things I can see. 1, the housing market will carry us thru for a time, and 2, President Rodham will be the preferred one to take the fall. The Repugs will likely do everything in their power to ensure that Bush doesn't usher in the coming recession.
The Colorado Gov is finally starting to get vocal about the problems faced by Colorado's forests. Currently some 640,000 acres are infested by the Pine Beetle, a small little bug that cores into certain pines and over the course of about 3 years kills the tree. We have millions upon millions of dead dry trees that need to be removed and the StateGov is starting to push to get regulations/laws eased on logging these trees and are also encouraging various uses for them such as biomass generators. I, of course, do not approve of the Gov getting involved but I hardily approve of them getting out of the way and removing legal barriers to the free market removing these trees and finding markets for them.