An
economic recession is the one we should all be concerned with here, not the one
Webster refers to.
An economic recession is defined by two successive quarters of negative economic growth. We use a figure called the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is basically the total amount of goods and services produced in an economy over a given period. We always compare the latest GDP figure to the previous one and come up with a percentage change.
To be in recession, an economy must experience two negative percentage figures in a row (over a total period of six months). Recessions are usually also coupled with higher unemployment, lower profits, and therefore lower wages. This in turn leads to less spending which means less production, lower profits, more job losses, hence higher unemployment... et cetera
Of course, sometimes through rapid dropping of interest rates, economic activity can pick up fairly quickly and the economy can return to positive growth.
Whether or not Dr Alan Greenspan has prevented a recession for the US cannot be known until the recession does, or does not hit. That is the unpredictable beauty of economics. Even though we live by it and we are the creators of it, it CONTROLS us.