Well now that oil is cheep again people may think that it’s just two much trouble and to costly to become energy independent. Consider that besides the now obvious problem with the mortgage industry the economy was set to slow anyway because of the increased coast of oil. As growth accelerates the limited amount of oil in the world acts as a regulating agent on the globule economy much like a governor would act on an engine. As the economy accelerates oil increases in price. As the economy slows the price of oil decreases, thus setting the stage for the next cycle. One lesson to be learned from this is that the total global energy available limits the total size of the global economy. Obviously the more energy we have available to drive industry the grater the potential for global wealth. The way out of this is to produce more energy. If the energy needed to fuel a nations industry can be produced within the borders of this nation then and only then can we compete in a global arena. To change from a system that imports most of our energy to a system that produces energy in abundance requires investment. The problem is that now that oil is cheep it’s not in our immediate best interest to invest. If we don’t act now the future will find us in a weaker economic condition. I for one don’t like the idea of the two most lithely powerful nations on the planet ( ourselves and Russia ) in desperate times, and nether should the oil producing country’s of the middle east. Just food for thought