A) Many words have multiple definitions, different people may use different definitions at different times. Any sentence that starts with "the definition of..."

A) Many words have multiple definitions, different people may use different definitions at different times. Any sentence that starts with "the definition of..." implies a uniqueness which likely doesn't exist in natural language. B) Many people define recessions as you said, as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Deese 2008 was one, apparently, and Deese 2022 was not. C) The US commerce department started using the NBER to set recessions in the 1960s. > A definition of a recession commonly used in the media is two consecutive quarters of a shrinking gross domestic product (GDP). In contrast, the NBER defines a recession as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales" [1] So I guess Deese redefined what Deese thought (as people sometimes do over 14 years) but neither the NBER, nor economists at large, did any redefinition. [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/07/27/who-decides-recession/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/07/27/who-deci... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bureau_of_Economic_Research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bureau_of_Economic_Re...