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Until recently, a recession has meant two quarters of negative growth. The term is used to describe economic conditions in various countries. The NBER is not

Until recently, a recession has meant two quarters of negative growth. The term is used to describe economic conditions in various countries. The NBER is not part of the designation. Indeed, it would be impossible for an economist to observe that Egypt, for instance, was in a recession as the NBER issues no opinions on the Egyptian economy. No, conditioning the definition of a recession on the NBER was a silly political stunt by the current admin. Don’t go along with these redefinitions… it’s silly and illogical.

SantalBlush 4y ago
As someone with an MA in econ, most of what you've said here is false. While two quarters of negative growth is often used as an informal measure of recession, the NBER definition is the one that has been used in the US for quite some time by economists. Historically, here in the US we haven't used the Egyptian definition of recession when talking about the US economy, so what you think about their definition is irrelevant. That isn't to say that we're not currently in a recession, but economists don't know yet, and neither do you.