Steep stock market corrections often create shrouds of pessimism that do bad things to people’s brainpower. And one of the absolutely stupidest things I have heard in recent weeks is that the recent drop in oil prices is bad. You heard me right. Serious people on financial television are saying lower oil prices are a signal of worldwide economic collapse. Here at home, that translates to recession, deflation, a profits collapse and rising unemployment.

I’ve been around for a while, and I’ve seldom heard such gibberish.