A recession is defined as two or more consecutive quarters of negative real GDP growth. According to the official figures, GDP has been just a little above flat

A recession is defined as two or more consecutive quarters of negative real GDP growth. According to the official figures, GDP has been just a little above flat (~0.5%) for well over a year now. But, everyone knows that inflation is really far greater than the official ~2.5%/year though. Depending on which methodology you accept, the actual number is closer to 10% and possibly as high as 15% (http://www.shadowstats.com/article/56 http://www.shadowstats.com/article/56 is a decent primer on some of the problems with the government stats). Using a more accurate GDP deflator shows that we've actually been in a recession for a few years now.