Quick survey of recent headlines... Looks like a recession to me.
How about you?

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Jobs slashed, pointing to recession - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - Employers buffeted by talk of recession slashed 80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years and the third straight month of losses.

At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, the clearest signal yet that the economy might already be shrinking.


Jobless Claims Hit Recessionary Levels, 21/2-Year High Before Fri. Jobs Report - Yahoo! News

Jobless claims spiked to recessionary levels last week, the government said Thursday, signaling that labor markets are deteriorating quickly on the eve of the March jobs report.

New claims for unemployment benefits shot up 38,000 in the week ended March 29 to 407,000, the highest since September 2005, just after Hurricane Katrina.


Investment firms tap Fed for billions - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - Big Wall Street investment companies are stepping up their borrowing a bit from the Federal Reserve's unprecedented emergency lending program.

The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that those firms averaged $38.1 billion in daily borrowing over the past week from the new lending program. That compared with $32.9 billion in the previous week and $13.4 billion in the first week the lending facility opened.

The Fed, for the first time, agreed to let big investment houses temporarily get emergency loans directly from the central bank. This mechanism, similar to one available for commercial banks for years, will continue for at least six months. It was the broadest use of the Fed's lending authority since the 1930s.