Just yesterday Ben Bernanke was quoted as saying that he believes the recession is “very likely over.” That may well be true, but at this point I believe the stock market and American consumers need more than simply the recession ending. The ending of the recession is important, but right now we need to start seeing some real growth.

The stock market has been continuing its nice run of late, and is now sitting at its highest level since last fall’s debacle that sent the major market indices plunging by 5% or more a day for several days in a row. Lately it hasn’t been powerful buying that is causing the market to go upward, but rather the lack of sellers. It seems that the current environment leads people to believe that things definitely have the opportunity to get much better, but there are also many investors taking the wait and see approach.

It is important to note that the consumer in America as well as around the world are still being squeezed. The tight labor market conditions along with fairly high gasoline prices and still historically high food prices continue to pinch the pocketbook of the common middle class consumer.

If the recession is indeed over that can be a chapter we put behind us and hope to learn from the mistakes that were made that got us into the mess we have been in. The current question that should be first and foremost on every economic advisor’s mind should be how do we get this global economy rolling again. Consumers and the market are begging for real economic growth, and the sooner the better! The one thing we all know is we don’t need any fabricated growth or short-term blips on the radar, rather we need the real thing that can propel us going forward.