Commentary 
The late U.S. president Ronald Reagan famously said in the 1980 election that “Recession is when your neighbour loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.” He went on to win the presidency in large measure because Americans wanted a return to economic prosperity. This raises an interesting question about what the word “recession” means.
The dictionary defines recession as “a period of temporary decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters.” The Canadian Encyclopedia defines recession as a “temporary period of time when the overall economy declines.” The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research, which is the organization responsible for officially dating recessions, defines it as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.”…