Amongst the permabulls of our race  – which is basically everybody at this point  – there's this empty-headed notion that as crude oil prices plunge (an event I predicted repeatedly here on Slope), cheaper gas would make the economy boom even more. I've read this sentiment so often that I just had to same something – in case you think plunging oil doesn't indicate a fundamentally worsening economy, but instead is just a “peace dividend” to the unwashed masses so they can buy more crap from China, consider what crude oil did starting in June 2008 and what followed………