We must be in a recession as I have had to switch from Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts. If we end up in a depression I will end up getting my coffee at McDonalds.
No idea about McDonald's coffee in upstate NY but I had the misfortune of drinking the most horrid cup of coffee that I have ever drank several years back that was purchased at a McDonald's here in Fairbanks, Alaska. They brew(ed) Seattle's Best brand but they had obviously not cleaned the pot in a LONG time (I've purchased some more recently from McDonald's that was fine). Consumers Report did a taste test and found McDonald's coffee to be better than the coffee at Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts so who knows.
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With regard to whether or not we are in a recession, it is true that we are not in a recession if you only consider the simplistic definition of two or more consecutive quarters of GDP decline. While this may be the most common layman's "rule of thumb" for determining a recession, it is certainly not a universal definition. For example, the Business Cycle Dating Committee (BCDC), at National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) whose purpose is to answer the "Where are we at in the business cycle?" question defines recession as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy" and uses a model that accounts for much more than GDP.
Why does it matter? The rule of thumb definition only concerns itself with one economic indicator (albeit the most logical indicators if you were only going to use one), the rule of thumb definition can allow shorter recessions to remain unaccounted for indefinitely if they don't trigger two consecutive QUARTERS of GDP decline, the rule of thumb definition offers little in the way of explanation for recessions, and the rule of thumb definition is by no means a leading indicator of recessions.
A noteworthy example is the 2001 recession. By the time the revised GDP figures had been released (July 31, 2002) by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce that triggered a recession by the rule of thumb definition, the BCDC had already determined specific months for the beginning (March - determined November 26, 2001) and end (November - determined July 16, 2002) of the 2001 recession.
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Note: I edited this message shortly after I posted it when I realized that some of the original content was inaccurate.
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