[Cog]

So your government taxes you out the ass and you are complaining about the low price of crude? You should let your representatives know that you don't appreciate getting the bone from them.

[dolanbaker]

The PIIGS economies imploded when oil went up. Now that oil is down they remain imploded. Every one of them if you haven't noticed.

Ireland is faring better than the others, but we're still a long way below where we were a decade ago, for example, house prices are still 40% lower than their insanely high prices in 2007, wages dropped and have still not recovered.

Unemployment is falling and is around 10% at the moment it was 16% during the worst times only stayed that low due to foreign migrants going home and Irish migrating out. I think that Ireland will be one of the first countries to experience the sawtooth of decline.

[dolanbaker]

So your government taxes you out the ass and you are complaining about the low price of crude? You should let your representatives know that you don't appreciate getting the bone from them.

WTF
The bailout masters (aka Troika of the ECB, EU & IMF) set those taxes to bail out the banks, we had no say in it.

As for the lower oil prices, thank dog for that!

[ROCKMAN]

Donlan - Yes indeed: a different dynamic when millions of "comfortable" energy consumers lose that comfort. Not trying to be mean but consider life in Libya before TSHTF there: life wasn't all that good for most so the "fall" was that far. But if it got even just a little bit as bad in the US as it has been elsewhere consider the potential reaction of our citizens.

[Subjectivist]

Donlan - Yes indeed: a different dynamic when millions of "comfortable" energy consumers lose that comfort. Not trying to be mean but consider life in Libya before TSHTF there: life wasn't all that good for most so the "fall" was that far. But if it got even just a little bit as bad in the US as it has been elsewhere consider the potential reaction of our citizens.

Frankly after seeing St. Louis last year and Baltimore this year how we handle a real crisis causes me great concern.

[ennui2]

too much money being spent on fuel and not enough left to repay loans

Here...we...go...again. When the ARM loans adjusted, the monthly payments skyrocketed. That's why they were called liar-loans. Nobody in their right mind should have signed those mortgages. This jump dwarfed the difference in commuting costs when gas jumped from $2-3/gallon. To these marginal lenders, they were gonna go into foreclosure regardless of gas prices. Then on top of that, these loans were bundled up into CDOs and stamped with bogus AAA ratings. This created a domino effect that is really what brought the financial industry to its knees. NOT oil prices.

It's true that exurbs around places like Phoenix and LA were a big part of the housing crunch, but the exurbs narrative was overplayed by peakers. Commuting distance was not what really pushed people's homes into foreclosure. The ARMs did.