Perhaps that suggests that we need to redefine what we mean by "Recession", which officially is two consecutive quarters of economic contractions. (Or as the Romers say, "When I say so")<p>Because the truth is, "recession" appears to mean very different things to ordinary people than to economists. Maybe we (economists) should refer to contractions as <i>contractions</i>, rather than recessions, and use the term recessions to refer to economic performance below some measure of potential production.