More than 7.3 million jobs have disappeared, unemployment remains stubbornly stuck at 9.6 percent and U.S. household wealth just fell $1.5 trillion in the second quarter.

So this week’s pronouncement by the National Bureau of Economic Research that the recession officially ended in June 2009, and that the U.S. economy will grow 2.6 percent this year, is one of the few bright spots in the past 18 months.