I watched part of Ben Bernanke’s speech to congress this morning at the gym.  Very, “potable.”  I wondered to myself if he actually understood everything he was saying.  Maybe there should be a law against officials and lawmakers using teleprompters and notes.  Shouldn’t they be able to do this off the cuff?  There’s a little bit riding on the policies they set.  Or is there?

Look mom, I'm driving too!

During his speech, Bloomberg flashed a graphic showing that $17,500,000,000,000 in wealth had been wiped out in this little economic “downturn.”  If you are the average American, there’s a good chance that you are worth a lot less than you were a few years ago, and your job may not be paying as well either if you have a job at all.  The story you tell yourself if you are the average American, is that you are in the back seat with a fake steering wheel. Bernanke and the boyz are in charge.

That’s not the case though.  In reality, some money that you thought you had disappeared.  In reality you were always sitting up front and that wheel in your hands does steer the ship.

I know many, many people who have thrived over the last couple of years.  They did it by steering their own ship without expectation; they just kept on doing their best while the average American threw up their hands waiting for something to happen.   To them, that $17,500,000,000,000 is meaningless.