The real world can be tough. Just ask Christina Romer and now Austan Goolsbee. Mr. Goolsbee replaced Ms. Romer as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. The chairman of this Council is a top economic adviser to the President. Mr. Goolsbee now follows in the footsteps of Ms. Romer by his announcement to resign the post and return to university teaching.

We certainly know that our economy is still ailing in a big way. There is still much to do to get it on the right path. Yet, top economic advisers to the President walk off the job in the middle of this massive challenge.

It is intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that if their advice was successful and they were making headway, they would be proud to stay on the job and tough it out. Return to teaching after being a member of the team that gets America back to work.

Here's the dirty little secret: they have unleashed their load and it ain't working. Their little socialist economics policies are boomeranging right back at them, and real life is telling them that they have nothing left.

They're out of ideas, and they know it. They're running out of [our] money, too, and they know it.

When reality rears its ugly head, where to flee for shelter? To the university, naturally. Now I have a great deal of respect for all kinds of education, including formal higher education. But that is not an endorsement that every idea cooked up in those institutions, and those cooking them up, are superior to real life. Sometimes, that is just not the case. But they can find solace by returning to the classroom and telling a few heads of mush how successful they would have been if it weren't for those nasty Republicans, T.E.A. parties, talk show radio and television hosts, and Sarah Palin. If only they could eradicate those pesky free-market advocates, along with the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, well, then, this economy would really be taking off.

Unfortunately, the rest of us who can't duck into some university tower get to hold the mess these folks leave behind.

Now if only the economist-in-chief would resign.  Wishful thinking, I know.