Wall Street seesawed through a choppy summer on concerns that the U.S. economy could be slipping toward a double-dip recession, but the National Bureau of Economic Research has good news: the last recession ended 15 months ago.

FORBES

If the casual observer were to make one quick observation about the first few weeks of free agency, one could easily surmise that the economic recession of the past couple of years has officially ended in baseball.

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The steady rise of the Dow since early 2009 has been driven mainly by two factors: the slow improvement in economic conditions and optimism since the recession ended, and the Federal Reserve's attempt to stimulate the economy using quantitative easing policies.

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