Suddenly it seems that everyone loves the U.S. economy. Jobs are picking up. Shoppers are spending. We're growing again!

I'm not sure why this is such a surprise to anyone. Obviously the stock market has been expecting this for quite some time.

It certainly shouldn t be a surprise to readers of this column, who remember that we called the bottom in the near-depression in May of last year. All the statistics have pretty much been straight up since then.

By some measures, the economy is at all-time highs already. Believe it or not, that's true.

On Wednesday morning the Commerce Department released retail sales numbers. They were very strong in terms of growth. But I didn't hear anyone mention that "core" retail sales are now at all-time highs. That means you leave out autos, gasoline and building materials -- so you're just focusing on basic "stuff " that you buy everyday -- food, clothing, and (most recently) Apple iPads.

In fact, that all-time high isn't even new. It happened last month. And then this month it happened again.

Auto sales have perked up, too. Last month they were the strongest since last March -- but they're still way off all-time highs. But the point is that the core of our consumer economy is back -- all the way back.

Actually, the whole economy pretty much is all the way back, and has been for a while. It's just that nobody noticed. It kind of snuck up on us.

In the final quarter of last year, real (inflation adjusted) gross domestic product made all-time highs, if you just exclude one single distressed sector. I know it's hard to believe, but if you ignore the parts that economists call "fixed investment" -- which includes real estate and capital goods like industrial equipment , and accounts for only 12% of GDP -- then we're at record highs. The first quarter of 2010 has obviously been good, so I'm sure that the 88% of the economy other than fixed investment has set another record. We'll know officially in a week or so when the statistics are released.

Is it fair to exclude fixed investment? Maybe not, because it's an important part of the economy. But the point is that the majority of the economy -- consumption, exports and government -- are probably a lot healthier than most people realize. We've really just got that one problem child on our hands.

How about jobs? As I wrote here last week, there's still a lot not to like about the labor market in this country. If you are unemployed, it is still nearly impossible to get a job. But that's an improvement. At least some people are getting jobs now. Last month 264,000 more people became employed than had been employed the month before. That's progress. At least it's a start.

Note that these realities fly in the face of a very popular economic outlook calling for a complete collapse of the US consumer, and a resulting collapse of spending in the economy. You've probably heard this philosophy called the "new normal" -- referring to the idea that, in the future, it will be "normal" for consumers to scrimp and save, because they are so over-indebted and because jobs are so scarce.

Maybe the rebound we're seeing is mostly due to artificial contrivances like the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates at zero, and various "stimulus" programs that reduce taxes and increase unemployment benefits. But the facts are the facts. For whatever reason, the U.S. consumer is doing just fine at the moment. The "new normal" will just have to wait until all that stimulus runs out. If the U.S. consumer collapses, then all the doomsayers will have been right. If not, they'll have to come up with another story.

I'm not wildly worried about that scenario. The whole point of all that stimulus is to get us through a rough patch. It's like being treated in the hospital when you're sick. Eventually you get well -- precisely because of the treatment -- and then you stop the treatment and leave the hospital. It doesn't work every time. But it usually does, and it probably will this time.

But there is one downside to all this. The big gains to be had in the stock market are at the beginning of an economic recovery. That's when there's lots of room for improvement, and you're starting from a low base, so the percentage gains can be spectacular -- in the economy, and in the stock market.

It has been spectacular, hasn't it? The economy has come back from the dead over the last year, and at the same time the stock market has had the best rally since 1936. That's just the way it s supposed to work.

If core retail sales are already back to new all-time highs, there's nothing left to recover from. We've already done it, except for autos.

If GDP excluding fixed investment is already at new all-time highs, there's nothing left to recover from there, either. We've already done it, except for housing, commercial real estate and capital equipment.

So what can we expect from those parts of the economy where there is still a lot of recovery potential?

Hmmm Suddenly the mind goes blank. Do we really need to build any new houses in this country for the next five years? Anybody need a new office building or strip mall? Don't all speak at once.

Maybe we could use some more capital equipment -- some day, when the factories we've already got and are hardly up to full capacity need to be expanded. And that also assumes that, someday, we'll create factory capacity here rather than in China, where it makes more economic sense because labor is so cheap.

Cars? Sure, why not. But with oil already back above $85 a barrel, how many SUVs are we going to buy around here? Those are the ones that the auto-makers can earn a profit on. It's tough to make money on those little "green" jobs that the politicians are always promoting.

My point is not that the economy can't recover. Sadly, my point is that it already has!

I worry that as soon as the stock market stops celebrating this little period of economic optimism, it will realize that we've already had our best growth spurt coming out of the recession. So what do we do for an encore? Don't all speak at once.