Crisis Over? For the rich - yes

According to the Wall St Journal Big U.S. companies have emerged from the deepest recession since World War II more productive, more profitable, flush with cash and less burdened by debt. Cumulative sales, profits and employment last year among members of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index exceeded the totals of 2007, before the recession and financial crisis. Deep cost cutting during the downturn and caution during the recovery put the companies on firmer financial footing.

“U.S. companies became leaner, meaner and hungrier,” said Sung Won Sohn, a former chief economist at Wells Fargo.

Businesses have been squeezing more productivity out of their employees. In fact, “in 2007, the companies generated an average of $378,000 in revenue for every employee on their payrolls,” while last year, “that figure rose to $420,000.”

The American capitalist system as a whole has weathered the crisis. Those who believed that this recession was terminal and hoping for the end of capitalism may have a bit longer to wait.

According to the economist Robert Reich "Luxury retailers are smiling. So are the owners of high-end restaurants, sellers of upscale cars, vacation planners, financial advisers and personal coaches. For them and their customers and clients the recession is over. The recovery is full speed."

The economy grew at a 3 percent annual rate in the final quarter of 2011. The value of financial assets held by Americans surged by $1.46 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2011. Personal income also jumped. Americans raked in more than $13 trillion, $3.3 billion more than previously thought.

Yet it's almost a certainty that all the gains went to the top 10 percent, and the lion's share to the top 1 percent. More than a third of the gains went to 15,600 super-rich households in the top one-tenth of 1 percent. We don't know this for sure because all the data aren't in for 2011. But this is what happened in 2010, the most recent year for which we have reliable data, and there's no reason to believe the trajectory changed in 2011 or will change this year.

For the rest of us, employer-provided benefits continue to decline among the bottom 90 percent, according to the Commerce Department. The share of people with health insurance from their employers dropped from 59.8 percent in 2007 to 55.3 percent in 2010. And the share of private-sector workers with retirement plans dropped from 42 percent in 2007 to 39.5 percent in 2010. If you're in the bottom 90 percent, you own few if any shares of stock. Your biggest asset is your home. Home prices are down more than a third from their 2006 peak, and they're still dropping. The median house price in February was 6.2 percent lower than a year ago.

It is a lop-sided recovery. Just for the rich and wealthy.