The economy is improving and many of those that are critics of this administration have had a hard time reconciling this with their electoral victory.

The very loose money and low interest rate policy of the Fed is undoubtedly having some positive effect.  But one of the reasons is the exhaustion of pessimism.

The policies of this administration have been disappointing to many small business owners and other taxpayers.  There was a further disappointment that the GOP was unable to unseat him.  Many of the opponents of the administration thought the economy would come to a grinding halt.

But it didn't. 

There is an acceptance of the regime and a willingness to make the best if it; to refuse to allow the government to be the most important force in our life. They are trying to make the government irrelevant.  They stopped listening to Fox News and CNN (or at least reduced it significantly) and returned their radio presets back to classic rock.

This does not mean that the policies of more government, record debts, micromanagement of our lives and higher taxes is responsible for this rebound. I would still contend that the economy is improving in spite of these policies, not because of them.  Unemployment is still high and the growth rate in the GDP is tepid. There is still a big divide between the record highs on the Wall Street and the struggles on Main Street.

Other recoveries have far outpaced this one.  A return to more growth oriented policies that are the opposite of those passed by this administration would make this recovery surge.  But such a change is not coming soon.

Like learning to live with the nuclear bomb and the threat of imminent destruction we have learned to live in the land of the all-powerful Oz, pulling the levers of his sputtering and noisy machine, and pretending to give us virtues we already possess.  Even this administration has not been able to completely squelch the capitalist spirit in America.

We remain fragile, but growing.  Our capitalist spirit is restrained, but not beaten. We remain optimistic, but disappointed.  We can still enjoy the recovery, but we know we can do better.

Much better.

Henry Oliner blogs at www.rebelyid.com