The one way that an equilibrium (of sorts) could be established was to bid up asset prices so that the high intrinsic profit opportunities were counterbalanced by over-priced assets - but of course this distorted investment incentives and fuelled over-optimistic expectations. The result, in short, was a widespread perception that borrowing was cheap, with all the resource misallocations and distortions that go with this.
Given that we import about twelve million barrels of crude oil and related products a day, a price increase of $ per barrel translates into a $ billion increase in the oil bill paid to foreigners. Like a tax increase, these added costs reduce the disposable income available to households to make purchases of other goods and services.