Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Money Girl, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Recession, recession, recession. Everyone has been talking about this topic lately. Chase591 money Huh? A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth? That's a common description, a rule of thumb, but that's not technically correct, despite what Money Girl's guest host announces. Speaking of doing homework, he should have done some more of his own. The National Bureau of Economic Research's Business Cycle Dating Committee is considered by the US Gov't and all serious macroanalysts as the offical arbiter of when a recession begins and ends. They look at monthly data, not just quarterly GDP data, to determine the month the cycle changed. See www.nber.org/cycles/cyclesmain.html http://moneygirl.quickanddirtytips.com/what-is-a-recession.aspx?commentid=12468#Comments http://moneygirl.quickanddirtytips.com/what-is-a-recession.aspx?commentid=12468#Comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:24:17 GMT Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:24:17 GMT http://moneygirl.quickanddirtytips.com/what-is-a-recession.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us