Alternative Energy and the American Enterprise

If traditional energy resources are going to become increasingly expensive, and sporadically unavailable, then business consumers will be forced to deal with these challenges in a traditional way: curtail operations and lay off employees. Hunker down until things (somehow) get better. If we are lucky, our economy will only experience a mild (though annoyingly chronic) decline in GDP with increasing rates of unemployment and inflation. Under certain economic and cultural conditions, however, we could be in for a deflationary depression with plummeting GDP and employment.

http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/cooke/2006/0418.html