At the Econbrowser blog, James Hamilton remains unconvinced that the economy is recovering.

The economic recovery may well have already begun in Asia and Europe, and certainly the mechanics are in place for significant improvements in U.S. real GDP even without any changes in the underlying fundamentals. However, I remain persuaded that a real U.S. recovery requires an increase, nor further decreases, in the number of Americans working.

Unemployment remains a major problem, combined with major losses in home equity. I suspect that's one major reason consumers continue to lack confidence in the economy.