quote:

Originally posted by zookeeper I heard something about high student loan payments being responsible for the economy being stalled, because the 25-54 demographic is mired in student loan debt, and not spending like they should be. Has anyone seen any credible sources to confirm this?

It's the Millenials. They're fucking up everything! They have high student debt, they watched their parents get fucked in the housing bust and stock market crash, they are the social media generation, they hate debt, they are heterogeneous and are politically different and hard to predict. Many probably aren't that fond of Obama even though they are in the sweet spot for liberalism from a demographic perspective.

All sortsa shit.

It's good to see you too, Zookeeper, even if we never post here anymore. I actually came here by accident this evening b/c I clicked the wrong bookmark in my favorites! This forum died a slow death after being quite a hotbed of debate for a few years. Cheers, buddy!

I have been rediscovering this forum lately. I, along with everyone else of my GEN.X bunch, got caught up in the whole facebook revolution, and now I find myself going back to an outlet that was very enjoyable. Posts in this forum were usually well thought out, informative and entertaining. AND you didn't have to worry about losing your job with a few inflammatory remarks. Unlike the social media of today.

quote:

Originally posted by Shakka It's the Millenials. They're fucking up everything!

Haha! I actually had not heard of this term. I think you are right on with your description of this generation, and they are giving the demographic people a run for their money. However I do like a movement in New York State, consisting of mostly 'Millenials' that are calling for laws that the budget must be balanced and term limits for all politic offices. We will see where this goes.

Oil prices are down, Fracking has been banned in NY, everyone is so happy...I am almost 50 years old, and I am waiting for the rocket to lift off like in the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. It will be interesting to see how Millenials react to a 'gas line'

Great to see you too Shakka, and a special thanks to Swamper for keeping this site alive, with archives to reflect on our thinking from younger, angrier, days. Cheers All, from the frozen southern shores of Lake Ontario NY.

How the hell are we going to face'gas lines' soon?

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Here's why....

Yeah, maybe in Australia. In America and Europe there is too much oil to store [Source]. We aren't going to have any problems, even if Iran tries to block the strait.

But considering that pretty much all American strategy since 1990 has been to ensure the strait stays open (unless we want to close it, that is), I'd love to see Iran try.

Please, though, link to an article from 2012 about how the price of oil will be rising from its current price of $105 to justify your fears

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Got to agree; there will not be lines for gas unless there is a localized disaster somewhere, US oil reserves are at their highest point in 38 years, with a total of 36 billion barrels of proven reserves.

That does not include US production so there's little to no chance of gas lines unless basically WW3 broke out.

There was even a congressional hearing a couple of days ago, to probe why gas prices rise so fast but drop slow, if it's all supply and demand and basically the cost is partially artificially controlled and only loosely linked to current supply.

If anything, we'll see oil prices drop again, and as the US uses less oil it will only mean less demand. Europe? I'd be a little more concerned, but USA is fine for the foreseeable future in terms of Oil supplies.

Yes, I think you are correct Rann. Things were different in that time, and hopefully the U.S. learned from it. Delivery is the weak link now, with fuel transported by train growing, local disasters are a disruption point.
I still don't like not having good price controls in place, even though they are frowned upon by economists.

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Originally posted by Wink_Dinkleson We were creeping up on $11T and now it's past $17T in only a few years. That's scary.

Look at this number now...

Yeah, paying close to the lowest rate of all time, we're definitely screwed: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DGS10/

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It's been 6 years since the last recession. We're about due for one. High empirical probability of that it happens by the 10th year of trough to peak business cycle.