The official story:

The economic recovery that began a year and a half ago is continuing, although, to date, at a pace that has been insufficient to reduce the rate of unemployment significantly. The initial stages of the recovery, in the second half of 2009 and in early 2010, were largely attributable to the stabilization of the financial system, expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, and a powerful inventory cycle.

…

More recently, however, we have seen increased evidence that a self-sustaining recovery in consumer and business spending may be taking hold.

Read full text of comments at the Federal Reserve’s corporate dotGOV web site

An alternate view from the National Inflation Association:

Great news from Chairman Bernanke today. We are moving closer to a self sustaining recovery. That’s right. We have to raise the debt ceiling because it’ll be catastrophic if we don’t. We have interest rates near zero and the Federal Reserve is monetizing our debt.  And, we’re moving into the self sustaining category.

Recovery?

Self sustaining?

Pay no attention to the tens of millions who are unemployed, the 43 million people on food stamps, rising food and energy prices, or the necessity for more debt issuance to prevent a catastrophic collapse. Though Mr. Bernanke does make mention of the challenges we face going forward, his outlook is markedly positive given the real, underlying statistics, some of which can be found at Shadowstats and The Economic Collapse.

Based on past economic predictions from Chairman Bernanke, we can forecast with approximately 99.99% accuracy that exactly the opposite of what he says is happening is actually happening:

“I’m confident that bank regulators will pay close attention to the kinds of loans that are being made, making sure that underwriting is being done right. I do think this is mainly a localized problem and not something that’s going to effect the national economy.”
-Ben Bernanke, 2005

“We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think it’s gonna drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though.”
-Ben Bernanke, July 2005

“Our assessment is that there is not much indication at this point that sub-prime mortgage issues have spread to the broader mortgage market, which still seems to be healthy, and the lending side of that still seems to be healthy.”
– Ben Bernanke, February 2007

“[Home] sales should ultimately be supported by growth in income and employment.”
-Ben Bernanke, July 2007

“At this juncture . . . the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained.”
-Ben Bernanke, March 2008

“Currently, we don’t think it [unemployment] will get to 10 percent. Our current number is somewhere in the 9s.”
-Ben Bernanke, May 2009
[In November of 2009, the unemployment rate reached 10.2%]

“One myth that’s out there is what we’re doing is printing money. We’re not printing money.”
-Ben Bernanke, 2010

“To lend to a bank we simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account that they have with the Fed. So, it’s much more akin, although not exactly the same, to printing money than it is borrowing. Well, effectively [we’ve been printing money]. And we need to do that.”
-Ben Bernanke, 2009[Video Link]

Make your investment and preparation decisions wisely is all we’re saying.