The really amazing thing about all this, though, is that the Bush economy has survived the record high oil prices, at least so far.
I give credit to Bush on that. If he'd adopted some of the nutty ideas the demogogues have thrown out, we'd be doing a re-run of Nixon, Ford and Carter.
All econ factors have combined impacts. Higher oil prices lead to inflation, yet at certain price points, they spur further R&D. Right now, places like Calgary are veritable boom towns - and since we're so closely linked with Canada, what's good for them is good for us.