Econony shrank in third quarter, housing market hurting

Does anyone expect the fourth quarter to be better?

Since the spring I've been arguing with my liberal visitors that the US economy is not suffering from recession. The classical definition of a recessiion is two successive quarters of a declining growth. We have our first one. According the the Commerce Department, the economy shrank by 0.5 percent in the third quarters. The drop was bigger than expected.

Classical or not, in my book, we're in a recession.

Home sales slid 3.1 percent in October.

Not good.

Technorati tags: economy business real estate housing recession