If you only paid attention to the mainstream media, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the U.S. is going to get away from the collapse in oil prices scot free. According to popular belief, America is even going to be a net winner from cheaper oil prices, because they will act like a tax cut for U.S. consumers. Or so we are told.

In reality, though, many of the jobs the U.S. energy boom has created in the last few years are now at risk, and their loss could drag the economy into a recession.

The view that cheaper oil automatically boosts U.S. GDP is overly simplistic. It assumes that U.S. consumers will spend the money they save at the pump on U.S.-made goods rather than imports. And it assumes consumers won’t save some of this windfall rather than spending it.

Those are shaky enough. But the story that cheap fuel for our cars is good for us is also based on an even more dangerous assumption: that the price of oil won’t fall far enough to wipe out…..

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