Will oil troubles push the US into a severe recession?

High oil prices and continued oil problems around the world will likely push the US economy into a severe recession by the end of 2013, Tverberg writes.

By Gail Tverberg,?Guest blogger / January 19, 2013

In this December 2012 photo, the sun sets behind an oil pump jack and the Rocky Mountains near Fredrick, Colo. High oil prices tend to lead to unemployment, Tverberg writes, and high unemployment tends to lead to higher government expenditures and lower government revenue.

Ed Andrieski/AP/File

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We have been hearing a lot about escaping the fiscal cliff, but our problem isn?t solved. The fixes to date have been partial and temporary. There are many painful decisions ahead. Based on what I can see, the most likely outcome is that the US economy will enter a severe recession by the end of 2013.

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Gail Tverberg, an actuary with a background in math, analyzes energy and financial matters from a perspective that the world has limited resources. For more of Gail's posts, click?here.

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My expectation is that credit markets are likely see increased defaults, as workers find their wages squeezed by higher Social Security taxes, and as government programs are cut back. Credit is likely to decrease in availability and become higher-priced. It is quite possible that credit problems will adversely affect the international trade system. Stock markets will tend to perform poorly. The Federal Reserve will try to intervene in credit markets, but if the US government is one of the defaulters (at least temporarily), it may not be able to completely fix the situation.

Less credit will tend to hold down prices of goods and services. Fewer people will be working, though, so even at reduced prices, many people will find discretionary items such as larger homes, new cars, and restaurant meals?to be unaffordable. Thus, once the recession is in force, car sales are likely to drop, and prices of resale homes will again decline.

Oil prices may temporarily drop. This price decrease, together with a drop in credit availability, is likely to lead to a reduction in drilling in high-priced locations, such as US oil shale (tight oil) plays.?

Other energy sources are also likely to be affected. Demand for electricity is likely to drop. Renewable energy investment is likely to decline because of less electricity demand and less credit availability. By 2014 and 2015, less government funding may also play a role.

This recession is likely be very long term. In fact, based on my view of the reasons for the recession, it may never be possible to exit from it completely.

I base the foregoing views on several observations:

1.?High oil prices are a major cause of the United States Federal Government?s current financial problems.?The financial difficulties occur because high oil prices tend to lead to unemployment, and high unemployment tends to lead to higher government expenditures and lower government revenue. This is especially true for oil importers.

2.?The United States and world?s oil problems have not been solved.?While there are new sources of oil, they tend to be sources of expensive oil, so they don?t solve the problem of?high-priced?oil. Furthermore, if ourreal economic problem is high-priced oil, and we have no way of permanently reducing oil prices, high oil prices can be expected to cause a long-term drag on economic growth.

3.?A cutback in discretionary spending ?is likely.?US workers are already struggling with wages that are not rising as fast as GDP (Figure 2). Starting in January, 2013, US workers have the additional problem of rising Social Security taxes, and later this year, a likely cutback in government expenditures. The combination is likely to lead to a cutback in discretionary spending.

4.?The size of our current financial problems, both in terms of US government income/outgo imbalance and debt level, is extremely large.??If high oil prices present a permanent drag on the economy, we cannot expect economic growth to resume in a way that would fix these problems.

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Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/1VO9EJKlFfk/Will-oil-troubles-push-the-US-into-a-severe-recession

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