Do you think that we are already in a recession?

Here in the UK, things have slowed down with spending, but I don't get the feeling of a recession just yet, and the financial institutions seem to be looking for ways to ward it off. Fuel has always been expensive here! Derek :-)

I'd say it's already here for many of us. My partner & I both work in fields that would be considered 'luxury expenses'; he's a tattoo artist and I'm a hypnotherapist. Neither of us provide a service that people can't live without. We've been feeling the crunch for almost a year now, and for the past month it's gone from tight to strangling tight. He's been in his field for over 20 years, so he has a great reputation & a solid base of regular customers; but even loyal customers have to think about their own budgets before spending on things like tattoos.

I think a full blown recession will be averted and by mid year, things will be looking better.

I do not know if the States are in a recession, but I can tell you why because people who wanted houses, were getting mortgage rates and monthly costs at introductory rates and when the real rate came in, it was too much and they had to get rid of the house and no one could afford to buy it, the big whigs laying off people and not all of the latter having tens of thousands dollars left to start all their own business. We had the same problem in Canada about a couple of decades ago, people getting laid off and not being able to maintain their homes. Oh and the gas prices are the same as up here, the only thing you can do is to pay off your credit cards and look for bargains and make sure you never get into debt. Then the money will go for goods and not to pay off interest rates.

I hope not. But with the drop in stock market for the past few days, well, it could be a trigger since people are just spending so little. Asian market is greatly affected too due to what they see as worsening U.S economy. But i have heard about 2 days ago that Bush is already doing something to uplift the economy. Let's just stay positive and hope that a recession will be alleviated.

yes, this is a bear market ///things are going down in our area..Detroit, Michigan and for the whole state...the taxes keep going up though and they are taxing our house way to high..we could not sell the house for what the state is taxing it.. gas is up..like you said and so is the cost of just about everything you can think of..so this mean less spending and less opportunity for the younger generation as the jobs that are available pay very little.. the little money that the gov't will give will be too little too late..but as in all things..this too will pass away.. we will see a recovery of our economy but it may take years to see the positive effects...the election of a new administration, the end of a endless war, the immigration problem, and the realization that there will be 80 million baby boomers retiring in the next few years? all these will become a factor as China has become the new super power..