PrestonSturges wrote: The US has been out of "recession" for something like 14 months, but the average person can't tell.
Actually the recession officially ended in June 2009-----28 months ago.
The average person can't tell the recession is over because the recovery in the US has been much weaker and slower than that of any prior recession. In fact, the US continues to shed jobs even in the recovery. Just last month the Obama administration reported that the economy created 117,000 jobs, but they forget to mention that they reclassified 130,000 workers as "discouraged"...removing them from the list of the official unemployed.
When you include all the discouraged workers, the actual unemployment rate is 17-20%---i.e. at Great Depression levels.