If you want to know almost all the nuts and bolts of our current financial condition, Barry Ridholtz has almost all of it in an easy to read and understand at Think Tank, one of his sub blogs.  Featured now is the never spoken about near collapse of the EU banking system (quasi system) as he delves into the world of insane lending practices across the pond that actually exceed ours.  Start reading here and I think you will be very cautious about this "recovery."