Oil Price Spike Means New Recession

[earthside]

The shaded bars on this graph show recessions follow every spike up in the price of oil.
So be prepared for the SECOND Bush economic down turn.

[aquart]

1. Thanks, George.

Is someone going to tell me how this is another brilliant strategy by Rove?

[soothsayer]

2. * is just letting his oil buds get rich now, in case there is no 2nd term

that's why they announced prices will go down at the end of summer, just before the election. In the meantime they will have reaped BILLIONS.

[lovedems]

3. Those idiots still won't take responsibilty for the 1st recession!

I am sick of hearing, "Bush inherited a recession". We should all know by now that the recession started in March 2001.

I just can't wait to see how the chimp justifies his tax cuts now! I am sure he will find a way to blame Clenis or the democrats. They will probably come out with an ad that blames Kerry for wanting a gas tax in the early 90's. Either way, the spin will be good for a laugh.

[tritsofme]

6. How would one cause a recession while in office only 40 days?

This is another ridiculous claim that makes liberals look dumb.

What we experienced in 2001 was a cyclical recession, and it was inevitable. It would be impossible to experience endless growth without a recession. We had just had the longest expansion in American history, and it had to end sometime, because that is the way that the business cycle works.

We were moving toward it all through 2000, we saw tech bubble burst, investment go down the pooper, and in Q3 of 2000, we even saw one quarter of retraction in GDP. bush's first budget did not even come into effect until October. I will always tell my liberal friends that try to blame the 2001 recession on *, that it would have happened regardless of who was President, but the aftermath would have been extremely different. Al Gore's solution wouldn't have been to institute massive give-a-ways to the rich, he would done much more responsible tax cuts, and used the surplus as a rainy day fund.

[GOPBasher]

8. I totally agree with you.

The recession was coming regardless. What pisses me off is that Chimpy used it to justify his budget-busting tax cuts to billionaires -- something our children will pay dearly for in the coming years. The national debt is exploding, and "fiscal conservatives" don't seem to mind. But you're right, Bush didn't cause the recession, nor did Clinton, nor any other single person.

[Virginian]

4. The prices will go down in October.

You can almost bet on it.
The Saudi friends of Bush will increase production and decrease cost just as it is written in Woodward's book.

[seasat]

7. They'd have to do it sooner to get lower gas prices

I heard that it takes months for a price drop in oil to affect retail gasoline prices. Now if the oil companies want to reelect Shrub, then they might drop them. Depends on whether their present greed outweighs their future greed.

[Kolesar]

5. I would love to see an inflation-adjusted version of that graph

With inflation, $41/bbl is still lower than the high point in 1980. The irony is that it is the energy prices that drove all that inflation.