The article touches on this briefly and argues that for home usage, it's usually not too correlated with the economy. "Even when the economy is stagnant, peopl

The article touches on this briefly and argues that for home usage, it's usually not too correlated with the economy. "Even when the economy is stagnant, people still watch TV and keep their ice cream cold." Oil prices are affected by non-home and non-personal energy use. In a weak economy, less industrial usage to make and transport things we buy and much less personal travel (fewer vacations, fewer flights).