Short Recession Over

A look at the stock market or thenation's unemployment rate may notseem to confirm it, but according to theNational Bureau of Economic Research(NBER; www.nber.org), the recession isover—lasting just 8 months. Not only is itover, but the NBER says it ended sometime ago, in November 2001, to be exact.Since then, we've been in a recoveryphase, although some anguished stock investorsmay differ. The NBER did hedgesomewhat, saying that the nation had notseen robust economic growth sinceNovember 2001, only that the country'sgross domestic product started growingagain in the fourth quarter of that yearand has been growing since. The growthhas been uneven, however, which has ledto a continued rise in unemployment anda ragged recovery in the stock market.