Essential

"The Great Recession"

Economic panel says it’s official.

Not only is the U.S. economy now officially in recession, but it has been so since December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. It's the first time in the postwar era that the euro zone, Japan, and the United States have all simultaneously been in recession. It also makes President Bush the first executive since Nixon to oversee two recessions. "We're going on 12 months already, and we're just getting started," one economist told Bloomberg. The chairman of the Institute for Supply Management said, "This may be referred to as the Great Recession." 1.2 million jobs have been lost so far this year, and the 325,000 that were probably lost in November are the most in any month since the last recession.