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>>>>”Being a shale oil producer means an end to boom and bust economy cycles.”

Absolutely untrue. We had boom-bust cycles when we were primarily an oil producer (even throughout the 19th century); we shall continue to have boom-bust cycles as a shale-oil and shale-gas producer (throughout the 21st century).

Boom-bust cycles are not caused by resources. They are the inevitable outcome of inflationary monetary policies primarily caused by the Federal Reserve’s expansion of fictitious money and credit. They are also caused, to some degree, by a practice of commercial banks (apart from any Federal Reserve policy) called “fractional reserve banking”, which also inflates the supply of money with a fictitious medium of exchange (economists call it “fiduciary media”). The “boom” is the period of inflation; the “bust” is the inevitable consequence of the boom, because — as it turns out — one of the unfortunate aspects of an inflationary boom is that it misleads investors into making erroneous judgments regarding the expected future profitability of large-scale ventures. Thus, the “bust” is that part of the cycle which exposes to everyone (the investor, the newly hired managers, the newly hired workers, etc.) the fact that the original investors misread the direction in which the market for their product or service was actually moving; and, additionally, is that part of the cycle that “unwinds” that original error . . . generally by means of liquidating as much of it as possible.

The “bust” is thus correctly compared to the hangover period after a “boom” period of being on a heavy binge.

So I think fracking is fantastic, and good for the economy in every way, BUT: so long as we have a Federal Reserve, and so long as commercial banks can lend out more than they have on reserve, there will always be some degree of inflation; and so long as there is some degree of “boom”, there will always be some degree of “bust.”