Low oil prices in 2015 could spark an economic revival in the United States while impoverishing Russians, Venezuelans, and other petrostate citizens. The New Year starts with oil prices at their lowest since 2009. This week they dropped around $1, to $53.11 for West Texas crude and $56.75 for Brent traded in London. Oil prices have plunged partly because of the shale boom in the United States, the biggest oil importer in the world. Fracking has opened massive new supplies of oil in places like North Dakota, where drillers can’t find enough roughnecks to hire. Diminished demand from Europe and China, where economic growth has slowed, is also helping to suppress prices. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has meanwhile maintained a steady flow of oil, even as the price has fallen by around 50 percent since […]