What Gives?

I'm thinking this title may need to actually become the title of the entire blog. I was reading that our economy was gaining strength the last quarter of 2009. I have no idea upon what that was based, but I read today that consumer confidence dropped dramatically and unexpectedly . . . by whoever thinks we believe what they tell us.
The following information is not party based at all, but simply truth based. I have no idea which political party ever entertains anything so non partisan as the simply truth.
I've also included the link and would encourage all those that are interested to follow this from time to time. I added it to "my favorites" and check it every few weeks.

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html

According to this (.gov) site, the last quarter of 2009, in which our economy was supposedly stabilizing, 45 banks failed. I compared that to 2008, which I realize was time of "covering it," but including September when the crash supposedly started or was revealed, 15 banks failed in the last 4 months of 2008. If I include September in the 2009 information, that would make 56 banks failing in the same length of time, but we were supposedly moving toward recovery by then. While on the subject of recovery, 20 banks have already failed in 2010. That compares with 14 last year in the same time frame. I also read that the number of troubled banks has hit 700. When I checked this information late last fall, the figure of troubled banks was around 400.
I have no idea how more banks closing indicates the economy is recovering and how an even larger number of potential bank failures could indicate the recession is ending, unless of course, it's ending in a depression!
For the love of money is the root of all evil . . .