With a serious expression on my face, I will answer this question. We may be currently in a recession. We may not be yet but are soon probably headed for one. That is the nature of our economy. It is cyclical.
I am compassionate that you have been without a job for awhile, but that in and of itself is no indicator of the National Economy. The National Unemployment rate is at about 5% right now. That ain't bad. Inflation is around 4%, mostly due to energy price rises. Mortgage rates are still dirt cheap.
Gold is not at an all time high, as you say. In inflation adjusted dollars, gold was twice as expensive in 1980 as it is now (and that was right before we had 20+ years of the strongest national economy in our history). By the way, if it was at an all time high, as you say, then it would be a horrible investment. Buying anything at an all time high is never a good investment decision and not something I would be recommending to friends.
Foreclosure rates are up, due in part to predatory lending practices that have been going on for years now. Also due to crazy price appreciation in boom markets over the past few years. Anytime you have a few years of boom markets, you can expect a bust. That is happening right now in Florida and Southern California, and a few other areas.
The Federal Reserve is not a "privately held corporation" as you say, but is actually a Quasi-public banking system (part public / part private). It was created by Congress to act as the central banking system of the United States. It is run by the Board of Governors, which is an Independent Federal Agency. They set the policy and supervise the Federal Reserve Banks, which are part public / part private, and the member banks, which are all private. I am not advocating a position for or against the federal reserve in terms of monetary management; I just believe folks should get their facts straight before preaching a bunch of doomsday hype.
We have had a fairly decent economy for the last few years and I expect that we will have a recession for a few years. That is a common cycle. I do not expect a full blown depression and I find the fear-mongering in Dreamer's post somewhat distasteful. I have heard similar fears raised by others for at least the past 30 years. It never seems to come to pass, despite all the "facts" that they quote which prove that it will. We are a strong nation with a resilient economy. Even the Great Depression, as bad as it was, only lasted ten years. And since then we have had almost 60 years of a strong and growing economy, with a few boom years and a few recessions as part of the cyclical nature of it all.
I am not trying to say that some folks don't have it bad, and that some areas of the country aren't worse off than others. What I am saying is that as a nation, on a historical basis, we aren't doing too bad and we aren't headed toward any kind of doomsday collapse.
