For those of us who remember long car rides with our children, the number one question that always came up was, “Are we there yet?” If you’re lucky, this question happened closer to the end of the trip than the beginning. The point of the question was always the same though; the trip has been long, we want it to be over, and when will it finally end? Although children don’t have a great sense of time, you at least could answer the question with some accuracy, if you chose to. Today, many people are asking the same question about our economy, wondering when this extended period of economic uncertainty will end, and when we can return to more enjoyable times of “normal” economic growth. The US economy officially came out of the “Great Recession” in June of 2009. The stock market bottomed on March 9, 2009, anticipating the actual end of the recession by a few months. Due to the depth of the recession and the structural damage done to the economy, it was generally believed that we would enter a period of sub-par economic growth for a very long period, possibly 5 to 10 years, before our economy returned to normal. We are almost three years into the economic recovery, and frankly it doesn’t feel that great. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, the economy is growing at a very slow pace, gridlock dominates Washington, and political and economic turmoil continue overseas. Just as happened in the summer of 2010, investors have been concerned this year about a return to recession that has caused the stock market to be extremely volatile. When it comes to our economy, the answer is clear that we aren’t out of the woods yet, but we are in a much better place than we were three years ago. When looking at the general consensus from 2009, when a full recovery was estimated to take up to 10 years, we also are probably right on track for where we should be. The problems that needed to be fixed from the last recession are taking time to fix, as expected. Consumers have concentrated on paying off debt and building liquidity. Corporations have tightened their belts and built stronger balance sheets. The third leg of the economy, government spending, is in the early stages of a contraction that many feel is greatly needed. These are all steps in the recovery that take time to play out. Our belief is that the economic recovery in the United States isn’t supposed to feel great at this point. We believe there will be periods of good economic growth and strong stock market returns (such as 2009 and the last half of 2010), followed by periods of slower growth and higher volatility in stocks (the first half of 2010 and most of 2011). Our investment portfolios are designed to deal with this uncertainty, and to protect your account value during the most volatile times. If we are 3 years into a 5 to 10 year process, what should investors do? First of all, make sure that your portfolio is truly diversified and able to withstand short-term shocks to the market. Second, realize that investment returns may not meet long-term averages for a while. And third, don’t fall to the temptation of trying to time the markets or following unproven strategies. No one knows for certain how long the recovery process will take. Hopefully we will all be surprised and seeing better economic numbers sooner rather than later. In the meantime though, understand that the recovery is taking its course and that we move closer to actually “being there” each year that goes by. Investing in stocks is subject to risk including possible loss of principal. Diversification does not assure success or guarantee against loss. Past performance is no indication of future returns.