What is this "Economy" doing? up or down?

I have, for the past 3-4 months or so, made an attempt to move into investing. Why? Well, I like money. The best things in life may be free, but the "pretty good" stuff still costs money. Investing is defined as: To commit (money or capital) in order to gain a financial return. Urbandictionary.com had no witty definition for it, therefore I was coerced into using the real one. It is appalingly clear that the U.S. has been undergoing the worst market crisis since the Great Depression. We see foreclosures in every neighborhood, jobs being lost (NYC lost nearly 60k jobs since the year 2000 in communications alone) reduced work hours, and less consumer spending. Despite all these appalling numbers, there are no bread lines, many still have their homes, some women continue to shop at whatever fancy store may be in style for the current 3 month span (okay, I exaggerate. Month and 1/2 :p). The stock market seems to be doing the same thing. It has ignored the current status of the country and those sad statistics and become an incredible bull market! The Dow has been closing at all time highs! Many have bought into this action which ideally, should have been bought into sometime around March (and I advise selling soon). However, experts have been predicting that soon the market will turn and the little guys with high hopes and little experience (I am in this category, though luckily I didn't have enough money to buy into it in the firsrt place) wil be left holding the bag. Beware of what the economy is going through and what you do in stocks because it can quite litereally make you or break you. Don't be afraid, just be aware! Comment and let me know your thoughts on this matter. Are we still in a slump? What do you think about many of these so called experts? How do you feel about our Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner and his wonderful plans?

Links to check out:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Stronger-dollar-weak-economic-apf-3017726482.html?x=0

http:/finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Real-Jobless-Rate-175-Of-cnbc-1855719550.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&code=

p.s. haha sarah!