News that should endear him to consumers who still aren’t spending enough, the nearly 10% of the American workforce that remains unemployed, the unknown thousands of Americans who’ve simply left the workforce, homeowners still going into foreclosure, banks still failing by the week, and businesses going into full-blown bankruptcy.

But let’s sing a rendition of “Happy Days are Here Again”!

“From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point,” Bernanke told a conference at the Brookings Institution. But “it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time,” he added.

How so? Well, unemployment will continue to rise into double-digits through 2010, a couple hundred thousand Americans will lose their job every month, families will continue to lose sources of income, spending will subsequently decline, credit and financial problems will remain, families who keep their jobs will be more likely to pay off debt than go out and spend, and the federal deficit will continue to skyrocket.

By the way, he also acknowledged that forecasting isn’t a “precise” science and that he could very well be wrong.

But other than that, really, recession’s over. That sucker just flew right out the window. I mean, *woosh*. Went so fast we didn’t even notice that it left.