posted 01-30- 10:28 PM               

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020130/ts/economy_744.html

It says, in part "While a recession is defined by one rule of thumb as two consecutive quarters of falling GDP, the National Bureau of Economic Research bases its dating of downturns on various monthly statistics such as employment. The bureau ruled in November that the recession had begun in March.

Analysts said that if Friday's unemployment report should show that employment has started to rise again, after a loss of 1.4 million jobs since March, the end of the recession could well be dated in either December or January.

That would make the current downturn the mildest in the post World War II period, with a drop of just 0.3 percent in output. By comparison, the last recession in 1990-91 saw output fall by 1.5 percent."

Since Smokey and DanWimp blamed Bush for the recession I'm sure they will give him credit for ending it.