Can we stop talking down the economy? I know 1% is not robust, but it's not recession either.

Warren Buffett, whose business and investment acumen has made him one of the world's wealthiest men, said in an interview published Sunday he believes the U.S. economy is already in a recession.

When I hear people talking about how bad this current so-called recession is, I often ask them: do you know what the definition of a recession is? Of course, the vast majority do not. How, then, can they say we're in a recession? Because the news media tell them we are, and because we have a Republican president.

President Bush issued a gloomy assessment of the American economy at a press conference today. Here's a selection from a New York Times article:

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank announced today the committee will hold a hearing on the economic, mortgage and housing rescue plan he announced last week.

Hospitals, schools and the assembly line at an airplane factory look like pretty good places to be with a recession looming and unemployment rising in America.

The just-released March jobs report was another bad news for the U.S. economy as it lost 80,000 jobs in March adding to growing fears of analysts and investors that the downward trend toward recession is increasing and that the U.S. Economy is moving toward recession.

California's economy to fare worse than the nation's.

Bernanke says the economy may slip to recession. I am going old school, which is the best school, and using the traditional definition of a recession as two successive quarters of economic contraction. Meaning Americans produced less stuff two quarters in a row than they did last year. That is the classic definition of a recession.

Japan's Nikkei Index rose for the third straight day following gains overnight on Wall Street and a week of fluctuation amid global worries about a possible U.S. recession. Financial analysts say concern is steadily growing among investors and officials in Asia about just how damaging the predicted recession will be.

Crude oil fell below 100 dollar a barrel after a US government report showed demand dropped and investors sold commodities on concern an economic slowdown will lower consumption.

Sweden’s Finance Minister has revised downwards predictions made last autumn regarding the country’s economic growth forecast for 2008 and 2009.