life support for American automobile manufacturers. Will it turn out to be a rare orphan of a machine?

Waiting for revival of the housing sector likewise ignores the real shock that energy constraints imposed on commuters to the suburbs. The large house and long commute that underlay the past evolution of America's residential capital stock presumed the continued availability of cheap energy. Joseph Cortright provides a persuasive paper attributing the collapse of housing prices to the rise of gasoline prices. All indications suggest that prices fell in proportion to the distances of houses from the central business districts of the cities in which their occupants worked. Carbon caps will now stifle further investment in energy infrastructure, promote expectations of high fuel prices to come, and depress incomes. The roomy house in the suburbs seems unlikely to recover its lost value, or even hold its present residual value, in a carbon-capped nation.