Conventional wisdom--along with a great dose of greed and blind faith in a failed economic model--caused the immediate economic crisis we are still deeply mired in. Every day, brings another does of conventional wisdom. Here is one from The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. household wealth fell by $14 trillion during the recession, sapping confidence and holding back consumer spending. Now, it is staging a comeback...

Household net worth plummeted during the recession thanks to sharp declines in real estate and financial assets such as stocks, falling to a low of $48.5 trillion in the first quarter of 2009.

The massive decline knocked out a key support for consumer spending at a time when labor market and credit conditions were worsening rapidly. Monthly consumer spending fell as much as 2% last May compared with the prior year—the worst reading of the recession—after posting gains of more than 7% during the boom.

   The conventional wisdom will look at any rise in the stock market and/or any signs of life in the housing market as a sign things are improving. But, that is a conventional wisdom at the immediate reality and is ignorant of a 30-year crisis. Until we have an honest debate in the country--which we are not having--about the roots of the three-decade long slide in wages, we will only kick down the road--again--a reckoning with a failed economic model.

   We can't let that happen.