Consumer confidence and spending is up, as are new home sales. Good news, right? Clusterstock has 25 questions to put to people who think the economic recovery is real. Among them:
In what universe is an economy with 39.68 million Americans on food stamps considered to be a healthy, recovering economy?

How can the U.S. real estate market be considered healthy when, for the first time in modern history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together?

According to one new report, the U.S. national debt will reach 100 percent of GDP by the year 2015. So is that a sign of economic recovery or of economic disaster?

43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. Tens of millions of Americans find themselves just one lawsuit, one really bad traffic accident or one very serious illness away from financial ruin. With so many Americans living on the edge, how can you say that the economy is healthy?

Richard Russell, the famous author of the Dow Theory Letters, says that Americans should sell anything they can sell in order to get liquid because of the economic trouble that is coming. Do you think that Richard Russell is delusional or could he possibly have a point?
Read the whole Clusterstock list. Discuss. Richard Russell does seem to be excitable, but I think he possibly has a point. Then again, I’m excitable too. Hey, I’m excited that the decline of the Euro makes French, German and Italian wine cheaper; just as long as Europe doesn’t take down the global economy with itself.