I think we barely came out of the moderate Depression (2009-2012), and are now in a deep Recession.
Think of it as driving from the upstate toward the ocean, along the way there will be some upgrades but the trend is toward lower altitudes until you finally reach sea level at the end. That is all we have seen in the past four years, anything that was called a recovery is no more significant than the slight climb as you cross the bridge over a little creek and rise back out of that valley, after which you resume a slow descent toward sea level. Of course the insignificant rise comes only after you have just experienced a briefly steeper descent as you go down into the valley.
In my view this is what has been going on for over four years now. Of course every attempt imaginable has been and is being made to claim that we are actually traveling to a higher altitude right up until the ocean becomes visible just ahead. I won’t elaborate on what the ocean represents, we all know that already.