re: #184 ralphieboy

That is exactly what is in store: gasoline prices will peak, the industry is oligarchic enough to manage that, and it will also not take much from agribusiness and the commodities market to ensure problems with food prices. For most Americans, those are the two major items on the budget after rent, and they will tighten the screws massively.

Yep, and its not like there is anything which can credibly substitute for liquid transportation fuels. The cost of petroleum is directly and firmly linked to the cost of virtually every commodity we consume, and the cost of petroleum isn’t going to go down ever again. At least, not in the medium and long term. (I.e., it will fluctuate upward pretty much forever from here on out.)

And we still haven’t had a frank conversation about it as a country. The good times are done, time for a generation of contraction and austerity. It’s not because of debt, the debt is a symptom of the larger problem. It’s certainly a problem exacerbated by bad banking practices, but really, people who think the problem is simply an institutional issue confined to the financial system are deluding themselves.