[deMolay]

Economy churning and going backwards. http://www.businessinsider.com/90-oil-recession-2010-12

[Daniel_Plainview]

Three years after the start of the economic crisis, we can say resolutely that America has a structural unemployment problem. [While] a handful of Americans are going back to work, ... they are doing so at much lower pay.

[Cloud9]

I have a gnawing suspicion that it is never going to be like it was. The paradigm this country operated on for the last 150 years no longer matches reality. We are no longer a country with unlimited resources.

[Cog]

We never did have unlimited resources, we just thought we did. The rest of the world is not going to be immune to the effects of peak oil and peak debt either. The die-off is going to be spectacular and you should count yourself fortunate to be around to see the show begin.

[diemos]

I have a gnawing suspicion that it is never going to be like it was.

Ya think?

[Xenophobe]

. We are no longer a country with unlimited resources.

We never were.

[lper100km]

It can and will. However, what I think you mean is that it can’t survive in the bau paradigm.

[Plantagenet]

The Obama administration hasn't connected the dots yet. They don't understand the connection between peak oil and the great recession.

Obama's energy policy is just as misguided as his economic policies. He supports Quantitative Easing and cutting off domestic offshore oil drilling---- both policies that have helped to drive oil prices to $90 and higher. Higher oil prices hurt the poor and impact businesses, and ultimately destroy jobs.

[vision-master]

Tax cuts for the Rich!

Most of the tax cuts that were a signature domestic initiative of George W. Bush’s presidency carried an expiration date of Dec. 31, 2010, to limit the potential revenue losses; supporters assumed that they would be extended when the time came.

Extending them (tax cut's for the rich) for the next 10 years would add about $3.8 trillion to a growing national debt that is already the largest since World War II. About $700 billion of that reflects the projected costs of tax cuts for those in the top 2 percent of income-earners.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/us/po ... 11tax.html

[Xenophobe]

Quick math calculation.

Unemployed person collecting $250/week in benefits. Drives 100 miles a week searching for work, in typical 20 mpg car. Combusts 5 gallons a week. $2.50/gal, versus $3.25. Incremental change in budget of $3.75.

Yeah...I'm thinking the jobless won't be much worse off with $90 oil. Skip a slurpie a week and it nets out to not change at all.

Next excuse to blame "not as expensive as 1970s's gasoline" current prices on?

[Cog]

I think where deMolay was going with this thread is not that unemployed people couldn't afford gasoline but that the overall affect of having this many people currently unemployed, with our current economic circumstances, would result is far more egregious effects.

[Xenophobe]

I think where deMolay was going with this thread is not that unemployed people couldn't afford gasoline but that the overall affect of having this many people currently unemployed, with our current economic circumstances, would result is far more egregious effects.

We had the same combinations of unemployment, even higher fuel prices, except we can throw raging inflation into the mix, back in the 70's-80's energy crisis. I don't see how lower real crude prices, low interest rates, low inflation, have much in common with a REAL energy/economic crisis.

[Cog]

@Xenophobe

You consider nearly $90/bbl crude oil prices low? This is an economy that is struggling to grow its way out of a very deep recession? What do you consider a high oil price?

[Plantagenet]

the jobless won't be much worse off with $90 oil. Skip a slurpie a week and it nets out to not change at all.

The problem with high energy costs isn't that poor people are deprived of slurpees.

The problem is that small business and large corporations spend more on energy, leaving less money for profit, expansion, and hiring new workers.

High energy prices produce recessions, and the increasing energy prices we are seeing now increase the chance of the US plunging back into a double dip recession, destroying millions more jobs and pushing any recovery years further away.

[Ludi]

[While] a handful of Americans are going back to work, ... they are doing so at much lower pay.

While the top 1% make more money than ever!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/busin ... .html?_r=1

Welcome to Neo-feudalism.

[Plantagenet]

[While] a handful of Americans are going back to work, ... they are doing so at much lower pay.

While the top 1% make more money than ever!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/busin ... .html?_r=1

Welcome to Neo-feudalism.

Welcome to Obamaville.

[dsula]

While the top 1% make more money than ever!

Damn it's nice to have somebody to blame. The jews, the negros, the dumb-ass whites, the banks, the corporations, the kenyan, the rich, the poor.
That's so much easier than to blame oneself.