The recession may be over, but the current road to recovery is shaping up as painstakingly slow. Recent economic news has some commentators looking up for 2011’s prospects, but it’s not positive enough to warrant a strong conclusion about the country’s chances of recovery in the next couple years.

For starters, personal income and expenditures increased in November, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Both personal income and disposable personal income increased by .3 percent.  Wages and salaries increased by $6.6 billion in November, compared to a $31.2 billion increase in October. Also rising, although not as much as in October, were supplements to wages and salary, which increased by $2.7 billion in November.

Just in time for the holidays, consumer confidence bumped up a bit in December, taking it to its second highest level since the beginning of 2008—according to … Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).