The Recession has landed!

Run for your lives! The economy is, uh, over!

I'm definitely not an economist, so I don't understand how all this works. But it seems weird to me that for months there's been this lingering question of whether we're heading for or already in a recession or whether we're afraid for no reason. So, it's here. Okay. It's almost a comfort to know that we're IN the recession:

Although the classic definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of declines in the gross domestic product, Stephen Stanley of RBS Greenwich Capital pointed out that the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nonpartisan organization that is the official arbiter of recessions, doesn't always strictly follow that definition. "If you go back to the 2001 recession, there was only one negative GDP quarter, and there might not even be one negative quarter in this recession," he said.

There's an official arbiter of recessions? How does an organization get that gig? Does it pay well? Is it like being an undertaker - no matter what, you'll always be in business.

Things are bad out there and it seems that even those employed in sectors not effected by downturns (like, people not in manufacturing, etc) get scared and stay home with their money too. And the dollar is worth less, so no European vacation this year either. Boo!