It never ceases to amaze me to watch the conventional wisdom both forget the past and ignore the reality of what the economy means to real people. So, the mainstream media–from The New York Times to the Wall Street Journal–are all ecstatic about the Dow going over the 11,000 mark yesterday for the first time since June 2001.

As The Time sees it, going over 11,000 comes “amid optimism about corporate earnings and hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon end an 18-month campaign to push interest rates higher.” Well, whoopee…but, why should most average Americans rejoice about that or the recent celebration of growth in the GDP?

Because here’s the real story of the economy: personal debt three times higher than it was in 1994, wages stagnant, well-off corporations dumping pension plans at the same time that earnings are up, health care costs continuing to rise, the housing bubble beginning to deflate, a “recovery” that is still lagging far behind other recoveries in terms of job creation–and, if you want to think globally, a trade deficit that continues to grow in gargantuan terms (how about China holding $750 billion on U.S. Treasury bonds).

Aside from that, though, let’s rejoice as investors pocket more money. We will also start hearing soon about how this is going to benefit the small investor–a prelude to an explanation of why 401k’s are the way to go because, after all, we can all do better in the casino…ooopppsss, I mean the stock market. Didn’t we hear the same rationale during the go-go 1990s, until the bubble popped then?