'Recovery' Looking Like 10-Year Recession

For many Americans, "recovery" feels a lot like recession—and it may take a decade for that to change, finds the New York Times. At the current rate of job creation, for instance, it would take nine years to recapture jobs lost thus far. Home prices, meanwhile, are down 20% since 2005; even assuming 2% inflation, it would take 13 years for the market to reach pre-crisis levels. Everywhere, offices sit empty.

“No wonder Americans are pessimistic and unhappy,” one economist says. America must "face up to the reality that we are entering a period of austerity.” The Times calls this era the "New Normal," a time defined by debt, unemployment, and uncertainty. As another economist puts it: "We’re going to be living with the overhang of our financial and debt problems for a long, long time to come.” (Click here for the latest on home repossessions.)