Jan 15, 2016 3 min read

Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States as compiled by the Associated Press:

Unfair trade, low oil prices and anemic global demand ganged up on the U.S. steel industry in 2015 to deliver a mean and powerful blow.

With recent news of yet another shutdown of steelmaking operations in the Mahoning Valley, that harsh beating looks unlikely to stop anytime soon.

Warren Steel Holdings, a successor of the once mammoth Copperweld Steel Co., temporarily shut down operations with hopes of reopening later in the first quarter of this year.

WSH thus becomes the latest casualty of adverse market conditions that robbed the Valley economy of hundreds and hundreds of good-paying jobs over the past year in steel and related industries. That domino effect reminds us of the same chilling effect three decades ago when the Valley’s network of steelmaking giants fell into oblivion one dynamite blast at a time.

Now, as then, the inability to compete invited demise. Today, most industry and union leaders agree current competitive struggles result largely from unfair trade practices, particularly by China and other Asian nations.

Another year came and went with neither Congress nor the White House doing anything to ensure Social Security is viable for future generations.

That is despite the fact that, at 80 years old, Social Security is feeling its age. Federal officials say the Social Security trust fund will run out of money by 2033.

Without ever-increasing contributions from working Americans, benefits to retirees cannot be made. By 2033, the pool of Social Security recipients will total about half the number of working people in this country. That means, on average, benefits for one retiree will have to be covered entirely out of the wages of two workers.

So something still needs to be done to get Social Security revenue balanced with benefits. We’re not exactly sure what that something should be, but we expect it won’t please everyone – yet we also expect it should be reasonable and fair to the millions of Americans who need it. We hope Congress takes up that challenge.

Just when it seemed the situation in the Middle East could not get any more dire, it got more dire. Saudi Arabia’s decision to execute Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shi’ite cleric who spent years studying in Tehran, turned the long-simmering feud between Saudi Arabia and Iran into a full-blown crisis.

Furious about Nimr’s execution, Iranians attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia, in turn, cut off diplomatic ties. Several of its allies are following suit, deepening the already-worrisome rift between Sunnis and Shi’ites in the region.

But the most alarming consequence of this ill-timed diplomatic row is that it threatens to derail the chances of a political resolution in Syria, which were already slim. U.S. officials worry the feud could make it more difficult for officials from Saudi Arabia and Iran, who have long been geopolitical and religious rivals, to sit down in the same room together to discuss Syria’s future in a meeting scheduled for Jan. 25.

For decades, U.S. officials refrained from criticizing Saudi Arabia, because of its government’s pro-American stance and U.S. dependence on the country’s oil, even as they demonized Iran instead for religious extremism, oppression of women, and disregard for human rights.

But as the United States becomes less dependent on Saudi oil – and as oil itself recedes in importance – Saudi Arabia will come under increasing pressure to change its ways.