I know a lot of experts would disagree with me regarding my recession comment.

There's 2 things going on right now that tell me we're still in a recession and the economy hasn't really improved:

(1) The world's unsold car stockpile.

There are thousands upon thousands of unsold cars at car parks around the globe. Sheerness (UK), Swindon (UK), Avonmouth Docks (UK), Sunderland (UK), Valencia (Spain), Civitavecchia (Italy), St. Petersburg (Russia), San Diego (US) and Baltimore (US) are just a few places where cars are parked because they can't be sold. All around the world these cars just keep on piling up, there is no end in sight. There are just mountains and mountains of unsold cars. Gone are the days when the family would have a new car every year, they are now keeping what they have got. It may be fair to say that some people still get a new car every year, but it's the majority that now do not. As it is, there are more cars than there are people on the planet with an estimated 10 billion roadworthy cars in the world today. It is a sorry state of affairs, but when the economy is good, cars are sold. They move off the lot in a blink of the eye.

(2) Government jobs are hard to come by.

It's pretty hard these days to get hired by the Federal Government. People like myself are finding it hard to compete with veteran and spouses (preferred individuals) who, a lot of the time, simply get offered employment because of the fact they're a veteran or spouse. (Forget about having the skills, ability and experience needed to do the job.) And even veterans and spouses are finding it rather difficult right now to acquire a civil service job. It's taking the majority of veterans and spouses a year or longer to land Federal employment. When the economy is good, it's rather easy to acquire a civil service job because no one wants to work for the Federal government.