This is a financial post on my non-financial blog [for other financial posts see: watchmymoneymaker.com].

Is it just me or is the media, in all of its fear mongering ways, really hoping we’re in a recession?  By classical definition a recession is:

A decline in business activity. Often defined as two consecutive quarters with a real fall in gross national production. – Sterling Exchange

Money.CNN.com has been pimping the recession like they’ll make more money off everyone else’s recession or something.  The television media of course runs with it because there’s nothing like following the leader (which is again, CNN).

A recession is not a good thing, but as the media hypes the snot out of it and then we’re stuck sitting around saying, “We’re in a recession.  The TV/Internet/Survey told me so.”  Enough!  A recession may very well be going on, but you can’t tell until after two full quarters of negative growth have already happened.  We haven’t had that yet.  We’ve had a decline in business activity, but not two quarters of decline!  Stop the presses (if they’re used any more, we get a newspaper, but I think its produced with an etch-a-sketch and 1,000,000 monkeys on typewriters).  Stop the stupid FUD language, and lets move on and get something useful done with our economy.  The decline of the value of the dollar is based on a lot of things, but its not George Bush, its not automobile manufacturers, and its not sub-prime mortgage problems.  Those do in fact have impacts, but not solely by themselves.  The blame rests on the people of the country and their choices adding up to the funk that is the economy.

Personally, I blame the slow down, if there is one, on Windows Vista.  Just kidding, I blame it all on the death of the HD-DVD format, which clearly was going to save the universe.