On May 15, 2008, at 1:44 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote:
> Well, I guess we get to see what it's like without the carrot, eh?
Yeah, and it's not so good. Though the impact on household budgets is considerably smaller (so far) than it was in the 1979-81 spike. And the current energy share of consumption expenditures is about where it was in the 1950s. It fell into the first oil shock, rose through the 70s, fell in the 80s and 90s, and is back up again over the last four years or so. It'd take $200 oil to bring the energy share of consumption back to 1980-81 levels.
Doug