During the Great Depression of 1930s, the initial recession ended within four years. But that didn’t stop the depression with high unemployment and economic stagnation from continuing for another six years.

And Japan has been stagnating for the last 20 years with some positive and negative GDP quarters throughout this period.

Taking one number out of context and triumphantly declaring the end of the recession is childish to say the least. The meaning of any economic number depends on the context. And the context is that US and many European consumers are still deeply in debt. Government borrowing and spending is out of control in all of the large economies. And the private sector is shrinking.

Sure, it’s possible to make things look better by having the government borrow and spend a lot of money. But this kind of spending is unsustainable. It improves the economy only temporarily.

Making the economy look good is not the same as fixing it and making it good. And so far not much has been done to reform the financial system and not much has been done to help consumers repay their debts. The private economy is still in shambles. But increased government borrowing and spending is making the economic numbers look good without fixing the economy in any permanent way.