Here’s something to think about as the fiscal year 2015 enters its final quarter:

The collapse of commodity prices during the past year or so is unlikely to produce the gloom and doom scenarios that many experts began predicting last month when the stock market suddenly slammed into reverse.

“Commodity prices have suffered significant declines in three of the previous four recoveries dating back over the last 40 years,” Minneapolis-based economist James Paulsen wrote in a newsletter five weeks ago.

But, he added, “in each of those cases, rather than signaling an impending recession, the pace of economic growth accelerated” after commodity prices bottomed out, as they appear to have done in recent weeks.

Paulsen, who is chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, wrote those words on Aug. 25, the same day that the Dow Jones Industrials completed a nearly 2,000-point, seven-day drop to post a new low for the year of 15,666.44.

That quadruple-digit drop spooked a lot of people, although five weeks later it is beginning to seem like a fairly normal reaction for a market that many had believed was overvalued.

The collapse of commodity prices over the past 15 or so months could actually be a good thing for the overall economy, according to Paulsen. It’s similar to what happened in previous recoveries, he wrote, “and like then, it does not suggest economic growth is about to slow.”

In three of the last four recoveries, commodity prices suffered severe declines during ongoing recoveries, Paulsen added.

“And in each of these cases the economic recovery persisted well beyond the bottom in commodity prices.” In fact, Paulsen said, economic growth continued for two to four years after commodity prices hit bottom during the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

It makes sense if you think about it in terms of your own family budget.

An easy example is what happens when the price of oil falls, as it has in the past year from more than $100 a barrel to less than $50 a barrel. That steep decline results in significant decreases in the price of gasoline at the pump.

Suddenly, instead of paying $30 to $50 a week or more for gasoline, you are paying $20 to $30, leaving an extra $10 or $20 a week in your pocket to spend on other things, including food, clothing and entertainment.

Falling commodity prices are actually a boost to non-commodity sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, retail and the service industry.

It’s why companies like Ankeny-based Casey’s General Stores Inc. have escaped the recent stock market downturn relatively unharmed. In fact, during the month after the stock market collapse began on Aug. 17, shares of Casey’s stock gained 4 percent while the Dow Jones Industrials were down 5 percent.

Author and investment guru James Grant provides similar examples in his new book, “The Forgotten Depression; 1921: The Crash that Cured Itself.”

Grant, who spoke to the Iowa History Center at Simpson College last month, wrote that after World War I, the economy overheated, until it was pulled back into alignment in 1920-21 by falling commodity prices. Those lower prices allowed employers to cut labor costs, which had also been inflated by the war-time economy, according to Grant.

The adjustments produced the “Roaring 20s” which eventually brought on the market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. But that’s an entirely different story.

The bottom line that both Paulsen and Grant make is that falling commodity prices are not necessarily harbingers of economic collapse.

Sure, it hurts farmers and other producers who benefit from higher prices. But in the end, commodity price declines are usually just part of the rebalancing that takes place in the economy all the time.