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Falling Scrap Iron prices
- Thread starter Old Doug
- Start date
hosspuller
Senior Member
John.. You made my point with your example. Your house didn't increase in value... The money DECREASED in value.
hosspuller
Senior Member
Consider any commodity... corn, wheat, diamonds, oil, water, etc. Basic rule of supply and demand governs the price of the commodity. more supply than demand and the price drops. Conversely, when the supply drops and the demand increases or just stays the same, the imbalance drives the price increase. Actually, diamonds are abundant, but the DeBeers & Russian cartels limit the supply to keep the price up. Much to the dismay of men and delight of women. ...
An article by John Steele Gordon says; "Money is just another commodity, no different from petroleum, pork bellies, or pig iron. So money like all commodities can rise and fall in price depending on supply and demand. But because money is, by definition, the one commodity that is universally accepted in exchange for every other commodity, we have a special term in the price of money: We call it inflation. As the price on money falls, the price of every other commodity must go up ..."
Both he and Milton Friedman say inflation is caused by the increase in money relative to output.
Our current bout of inflation is caused by the American gov't throwing extra money into circulation via Covid relief, unemployment benefits, and various other give-aways. Present administration currently is proposing to making it worse. They call it "build back better" I call it "Inflation cubed"
here's a link to the article https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/inflation-united-states/
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John C.
Senior Member
Money is only a commodity to the rich. It's value in that case is measured against other countrys' currencies. The current administration policies I have heard bandied about is concerned with paying for maintenance and improvements to infrastructure by closing loop holes in the tax structure, such as bringing dollars back from overseas and collecting taxes from incomes derived from sources other than employment taxes. Friedman achieved prominence in the field of economics by promoting a view that favored the rich at the expense of the poor. Reagan's trickle down theory was a result of Friedman's guidance and has lately been increasingly debunked. Here are some of Friedman's other beliefs quoted from Wikipedia;
After retiring from the University of Chicago in 1977, and becoming Emeritus professor in economics in 1983,[18] Friedman was an advisor to Republican President Ronald Reaganand Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[19] His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal government intervention in social matters. He once stated that his role in eliminating conscription in the United States was his proudest achievement.[16] In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman advocated policies such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, a negative income tax and school vouchers[20] and opposition to the war on drugs and support for drug liberalization policies. His support for school choice led him to found the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, later renamed EdChoice.[21][22]
Read the whole article here; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman
If you want another take on printing money, check out this link with a different opinion;
https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2020/09/08/will-money-printing-cause-inflation/
The best person that I recall that handled the situation of inflation was Paul Volcker who ran the Federal Reserve Board during both the Carter and Reagan administrations. His raising interest rates was largely credited with Carter's loss of the presidency and the reason Reagan fire him because Reagan wanted to run up deficits for military spending.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker
I'll still go back to my original premise, prices go up because essential supply costs go up, in our case energy. There is only so much value in the world in the form of Gross Domestic Products. You are correct in that we are spending more money in relation to the GDP, i.e. spending money we don't have. A dollar's value is based on the faith and good will of the American people. It's basically a credit note. If it was based on gold like it was before Nixon tossed the standard, then all you could build would be to the limits of the amount of gold you had. Basically all that gold would already be tied up in long term structures or hidden in overseas bank accounts. Go back to the fact that of all the dollars out there, two thirds are locked up outside of this country. All this to say that the printing of money then is a result of inflation and not a cause of it.
After retiring from the University of Chicago in 1977, and becoming Emeritus professor in economics in 1983,[18] Friedman was an advisor to Republican President Ronald Reaganand Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[19] His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal government intervention in social matters. He once stated that his role in eliminating conscription in the United States was his proudest achievement.[16] In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman advocated policies such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, a negative income tax and school vouchers[20] and opposition to the war on drugs and support for drug liberalization policies. His support for school choice led him to found the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, later renamed EdChoice.[21][22]
Read the whole article here; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman
If you want another take on printing money, check out this link with a different opinion;
https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2020/09/08/will-money-printing-cause-inflation/
The best person that I recall that handled the situation of inflation was Paul Volcker who ran the Federal Reserve Board during both the Carter and Reagan administrations. His raising interest rates was largely credited with Carter's loss of the presidency and the reason Reagan fire him because Reagan wanted to run up deficits for military spending.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker
I'll still go back to my original premise, prices go up because essential supply costs go up, in our case energy. There is only so much value in the world in the form of Gross Domestic Products. You are correct in that we are spending more money in relation to the GDP, i.e. spending money we don't have. A dollar's value is based on the faith and good will of the American people. It's basically a credit note. If it was based on gold like it was before Nixon tossed the standard, then all you could build would be to the limits of the amount of gold you had. Basically all that gold would already be tied up in long term structures or hidden in overseas bank accounts. Go back to the fact that of all the dollars out there, two thirds are locked up outside of this country. All this to say that the printing of money then is a result of inflation and not a cause of it.
CM1995
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This thread is headed straight to politics.
Be a shame for Old Doug to have to start another thread about scrap iron prices with all the real discussion of scrap iron selling so far.
Be a shame for Old Doug to have to start another thread about scrap iron prices with all the real discussion of scrap iron selling so far.
John C.
Senior Member
Scrap iron is one of the values I have to consider when appraising most any machine. Sales Comparison, Cost and Income are the value approaches. All are governed by economics. In short we are all going to learn more about economics in the coming months.
Birken Vogt
Charter Member
Another thing Milton Friedman said (I think) was that for any given set of circumstances, there are an infinite number of explanations. We are seeing that on this thread.
I am always lookin
Its a tuff time for me but i got a good laugh out of that.This thread is headed straight to politics.
Be a shame for Old Doug to have to start another thread about scrap iron prices with all the real discussion of scrap iron selling so far.
That helps at the scrap yard if they have pretty girls at the pay window. If the price stay were its at i will steal go ahead with my plans to clean up.
Party pooperPlenty of sites all over the net if that's what your looking for -
I had a trailer loaded from when the price was up that i didnt get hauled. I hauled it to day the price had dropped half a cent a pound ? I checked with 2 places same price but i was told about another place its been there for awhile but i had never been by it or heard much about it till the day before. I tryed to call this morning and never got a hold of any on. I called when i got back home and i could have made $160.00 more if i had went there today dang the bad luck. He offered me $240.00 a ton for my #2 i have a load about ready so next week i will try them out. I cant understand how he can pay those prices i hope it works out. The highway i will use to get to the new place there is alot less traffic that will be good and it 7 miles closer. At 3.5 to 4 m p g that will save some to.
I used my GMC truck for the first time this year i have been working on it alot. It got 3.5 towing my pickup home when i got it the best has been 4 mpg but this trip it got over 5 mpg. If it could get 7 that would be great.
I hauled a load of #2 to the new place. They paid more than anyone but the road there was very hilly curvy and ruff. I looked at a pictures of the place it must have been before they bought it there wasnt much room . You drive in pull on the scales pull off and they unload you 20 feet from the scales just a few feet from the road then you circle around on the road back on the scales reweigh back up off the scales were there is just room to park one truck. They paid $245.00 a ton but they said price is going down tomorrow. I cleaned them out of Ben Franklins . I took a different way home it was longer but better road.
Its dropped. I hauled a load of barbwire today shred $100.00 a ton i have one more load of wire i will be glade to get rid of it no matter what the price. I have 3 cars to haul then i will hold off till i have to or price changes.
colson04
Senior Member
Is it worth breaking a generator or electric motor apart to sell the copper separately when scrapping? I have a 30Kw PTO generator that doesn't make proper voltage. I replaced the voltage regulator and it still isn't anywhere close to correct. Very low. At this point, I've had this "project" for 4 years now and it's just collecting dust. I tried selling it whole, thinking someone else like me would be interested, but I have had zero interest on it. Not even a low offer. At this point, I'm debating how much copper is inside and whether I can recoup the $400 I paid for purchase. I really don't want to scrap it, but I know not everything is worth saving either.
1466IH
Senior Member
Wish you were a lot closer lol. I would take that off your hands in a heart beat. Not sure myself what your best option is but there is a company out of St Louis that could repair that generator.