According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession officially began during the fourth quarter of 2007 (December 2007) and ended during the second quarter of 2009 (June 2009). Subsequently, the U.S. economy has recovered slowly, despite many policy actions aimed at stimulating economic activity. Given the financial crisis, as well as the apparent real estate bubble and its subsequent collapse during the 2000s, the pace of the recovery is not surprising, especially when one looks at investment data. This raises questions about how we should be evaluating the current economy's performance.