It's over...for them.

The persistence of the illusion that economists know anything is astonishing. Tuesday Mr. Bernanke, who apparently couldn't be bothered to warn anyone of the coming collapse last fall, said the economic recession is over.

Phew! That wasn't so bad. Bailout the banks by forcing a nation into decades of debt, print piles of cash and BANG! It's over! Whoo hoo!

Here's the dirty little secret Bernanke and his crew avoid: When they say the recession is over - they mean it's over FOR THEM. It's over for the banks who hauled off billions tax payer cash. It's over for Goldman Sachs and AIG. A lot of loot got shovelled their way in the last year. It's over for idiot financial news talking heads who pull own 6 figures for blathering happy nonsense into a TV camera everyday. It WAS over for ACORN until that whole sex slave mix up. (Those darn moralists who don't think the U.S. government should be abetting statutory rape! Always ruining the party!) It's over for the health insurance companies. In fact, the party is just starting for them. Chicago Slim is about to criminalize anyone who won't or can't buy health insurance.

Yes indeed, it's over. The recession has been a success. When Bernanke types talk about the economy they don't really mean you and me. They're talking about their pals in penthouses on the upper west side and in mega mansions in the Hamptons. The transfer of wealth from the middle class to the very rich has been a wild success. The little worries that they might not pull it off are now behind them. Looking forward, the only concern is how to keep China in line. No small task. Still - the recession is OVER! Let's leave the bone crushing debt to China for another day - or another generation.

Meanwhile back in reality: 10% unemployment and the collapse in credit marches on. That 10% figure is an absurdity wrapped in a lie covered with bullshit sauce...and we all know it. I'm not an economist (A fact I'm increasingly proud of - and it's easier than saying I'm not an overpaid, gaseous, mole person.) still it doesn't take a doctorate from Yale to know that the economy - such as it is - ain't returning to its bubbly glory days anytime soon. Sure Ben B tells us it will be a slow recovery - which is code for "You are debt slaves that are provided with bread and circuses so we can continue to loot. Circuses will now be available in the short term. Bread will be on hold for a bit. Perhaps the local mini mart has some yeasty food you can eat for the pittance clanging about in your pocket. Or you can grow turnips on the lawn of a repo-ed house in your 'hood."

Wee wee-ed up bloggers in the internet backwaters did see the meltdown coming - the one that best and brightest overlooked - and now many of the same folks say the problems in the economy are nowhere near fixed. So who are we to believe? Big Ben and his cavalcade of "experts" or the "nuts" on the fringe who got it right?

I'll take the nuts for a thousand, Alex.

You got a problem with that?

I've heard a lot about "What's The Matter with Kansas" this campaign. I'm as guilty as anyone else of wondering about someone driving a Yugo with a Bush bumper sticker. Why vote against your economic best interests?

But what I've learned in the epic battle for the Democratic nomination is that Kansas doesn't have the problem. The Democratic Party does. Having been on the receiving end of smug, self righteous, condescending comments I now know how Kansas feels. Cheese Stakes anyone? The assumption that anyone voting for Senator Clinton shops at the dollar store (which we'll all be doing soon enough), drives a pick up truck, swills beer and shoots guns while reading the bible is bigoted.

When Senator Obama made his comments about "bitter" voters it wasn't elitist. It was obnoxious. You don't reach people by talking down to them. Which is why both Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan (who I still abhor) were so good at what they did. Bill Clinton was always the smartest person in the room but he never made anyone feel stupid. That's a tough thing to pull off.

The whole "Kansas" thing is paternalistic. We know better. Really? Howard Dean? You know better? I knew as soon as you pulled the plug on Florida it was going to be disastrous. Any fifth grader doing a report on the Electoral college could have told you the same thing. Daddy made a big mistake! But we're supposed to trust you with your fifty state strategy.

Interestingly enough, I think voters are voting for their economic best interest when they vote for Senator Clinton. The Recession hand writing is on the wall. Obama offers platitudes of hope with no substance. Senator Clinton is wonkish to the extreme and people pulled the lever for her in states hard hit by the economic bust. I don't know if she can pull us out of the mess we're in, but I do not believe that anyone else could do better.