What recession?

Television talking heads have recently felt free to speak as though the economy were in recession, but it ain't so, if you accept the premise that the definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. According to today's announcement from the Commerce Department, the economy grew in the first quarter by .6 percent. That's not good but it's not negative. The first quarter results will be revised twice, so it's still possible there could be negative growth after revision. For now, though, it isn't accurate to say the economy is in recession.