To some people, any time the economy seems bad, it is a recession. This is simply not the case. A recession, in economic terms, is a period of at least six months of negative growth of the gross domestic product.

Of course, to most people, that sounds like gibberish. What it means is that the economy can’t just be slow, it has to actually be getting smaller. Despite the feeling nationally in the first half of 2008 that the economy was bad, it was not recessionary. The growth had slowed and the economy was stagnant, but it was not actually getting smaller.

Many fear that the current economic trend is the beginning of a depression. Economists would argue that it isn’t a depression until it has existed for several years, but politicians and business owners and others have expressed concern that a recession which occurs quickly enough and deep enough ought to be considered a depression.

Sadly, as far as economists are concerned whether the economy drops one percent or 10 percent in a quarter, a three-month period, is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is how many consecutive quarters that drop continues. While that may work for economic theory, it doesn’t work for real people.

Many people can deal with higher gas prices and no holiday bonus, so long as their other expenses stay the same and their job is steady. But the reality for many people is that they are losing their jobs, and if

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