Everything is Okay...

Despite what many professors will tell you (okay maybe one in particular that I didn't agree with), a recession is not defined as 2 successive quarters of negative GDP.  And it shouldn't be.

The latest 3.3% GDP growth in Q2 should be enough to tell you that mode of thinking is horrendously wrong.

From the National Bureau of of Economic Research

The NBER does not define a recession in terms of two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. Rather, a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.

And to think, that professor was an economist..

Here's an old joke for you guys:

A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.

A depression is when you lose your job.

--Via the Big Picture