The Obama administration keeps trying to convince the nation that we are in an economic "recovery."
Well, decide for yourself:
* Unemployment remains in the very painful 10 percent range - and even top administration officials, such as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, quietly admit that joblessness is likely to remain high or get even worse in the coming months.
* Neither consumer spending - which is crucial to recovery because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity - nor personal incomes rose in June, according to the Commerce Department. Consumer spending has been weak for three months now, and the report on personal income was the worst in nine months. Consumers seem to doubt that the administration has a plan to help the economy. Most people consider unemployment and the economy the biggest issue facing our country, according to a recent Gallup poll, yet only 46 percent approve of the president's job performance.
* What economic growth there has been is "just about half the pace normally seen coming out of a deep recession," The Associated Press noted - which raises serious questions about whether we are in a genuine "recovery."
* Manufacturing is slowing further, as orders by factories have now fallen for a second straight month.
* Contracts for the purchase of homes dropped by nearly 3 percent in June, which does not bode well for the deeply troubled housing market.
But as hard as things are now, we have this unhappy reminder: "Many analysts believe growth will slow further in the second half of the year as high unemployment, shaky consumer confidence and renewed troubles in housing weigh on the year-old economic recovery," the AP reported.
It is also likely that Congress is going to raise taxes at the end of the year by failing to renew at least a big part of the Bush tax cuts. There is never a "good" time for tax hikes, but raising taxes in a time of economic crisis will only deepen that crisis.
We'd love for our economy to experience a genuine, durable recovery, but the evidence is pointing in the other direction.