[pabianice]

"Well, this is a complicated one, and we’ll nod to the usual suspects: Globalization, technology, and the depletion of natural resources (especially energy) meant that the postwar boom would not last forever."

Wrong again. We have 300 years of coal and 500 years of oil/natural gas. The only depletion going on is in your head.

[central_va]

I don’t think the USA could produce 18 million bbl/day even if every oil field possible was tapped.