With oil continuing to trade below the $50 mark, Nobel laureate and respected economist Robert Shiller was on CNBC Wednesday to discuss the impact of lower oil prices on consumer confidence and other areas of economy.
“Historically business cycles have been associated with oil prices. The '73-'74 recession was an oil price spike, '79-'80, these are big recessions of our times, another oil price spike. So, not only that, but it affects consumer confidence,” Shiller said.
“It really affects psychology and I think it’s hard to say exactly how it will affect psychology. In this case when we are suddenly losing a huge profit from the new technology.. This country is proud of our oil technology and it’s been boosting our spirit, animal spirits, it’s hard to predict where they will go,” Shiller added.
A Déjà vu Of 2008 Financial Crisis
“I had an oil product with my company in Macro Markets. We had to shut it down because the oil prices doubled and that was in our contract and so I remember that was a crisis for me. I didn’t imagine that it could have doubled so fast,” Shiller said.
Do Low Oil Prices Impact Overall Real Estate Market?
“Overall I think that low oil prices...but it’s remote suburbs as well which are not doing as well recently because maybe people are getting more urban and with recently high oil prices, that’s a factor in remote suburbs. So, I think real estate market is not a monolith.”
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