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Is it back to the 70s?

HEATHER SCOFFIELD

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 7:20 AM EST 05/08/08

The similarities are remarkable: high oil prices, slowing growth, a lack of confidence and creeping unemployment. But a replay is unlikely, many economists say ...Read the full article

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  1. Fake Alltheway from United States writes: not even close. i have all my money in DUG, HOD, HED, and EEV. enjoy shorting oil, china, brasil, russia and canada! easy money never ends!
  2. Lance M from Canada writes: The energy crises of the 70s was the result of politics. The current energy crises is a permenant state of affairs resulting from a limited and decreasing amount of supply in the face of increasing demand. Stagflation would be easier to take rather than economic contraction and deflation. Simply put, less money will be available for loans, or to repay existing loans, wages will decrease and people will be living a lot simpler, closer to home and closer to the land. A watershed in human history is occuring, the golden age is passing away and a new economy is emerging, one based on solar energy (agriculture) and not on fossil fuels. This situation is not a light switch where a night and day difference occurs but instead more like a volume knob that is continuously being turned down until our lives and lifestyles resemble that of the period of time prior to the 1930s and likely in 30 years time, like that period of the time prior to 1900.
  3. Ryan Ginger from Canada writes: "The differences between now and then extend well beyond government attitudes. Oil and gas don't play as much of a role in household and company budgets now as in the 1970s, so a shock in the oil price is not as much of a shock to the pocketbook as three decades ago, economists say."

    Marginally true about oil, but the opposite is true about gas (you mean natural gas, I presume). The household consumption of natural gas has risen dramatically in Canada over the past 30 years. Check Statscan.

    Also, your follow up point is specious: "As a result, workers are far less likely to demand pay hikes to face their rising energy costs, and have less power to demand such raises due to global competition."

    You're forgetting that, in addition to the rising energy costs, workers are paying much higher food costs today (which can be partly blamed on higher energy costs, anyway).
  4. Alvin Robbestad from Prince George, Canada writes: As long as no one even thinks on mentioning "price control". Nothing drives up prices (and inflation) like taking product OFF of the market due to artificially low pricing. I'm not some laize-faire zealot, as I do appreciate the more level electricity pricing in BC over the ridiculous
    "24 hour" cycling in Alberta, but with regards to consumer goods, let the beauty of supply and demand rule the roost.

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