I'm fascinated by the almost-religious value that some people attach to labels. "Recession" is a word coined in 1937 as a euphemism for "Depression", which was possibly the dirtiest word in the language at that time. Over the years, persons unknown attached a rigid definition to the word; by that definition (six consecutive months of economic decline)we're not in a recession. But we're economically surely in a pile of something hot and steamy.