Recession is the decline in a country's
gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year. The term recession, however, has been utilized in recent decades by politicians to distort the economic outlook and
reframe in more positive terms rather than have to address the looming
economic depression.
Ralph: Dude, the feds just lowered interest rates and backed a takeover of a large
investment bank after acknowledging that we might be in a recession.
Ted: This
recession's been going on since Bush took over. How long until we call it an
economic depression?