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Welcome to the 'recession'
Buffett says we're there. Greenspan says we're likely so. It may not be official, but the question is: How long will the funk last?
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By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large
Last Updated: May 27, 2008: 12:35 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's getting harder and harder to deny that the economy is in recession.
Warren Buffett, the world's most famous investor, proclaimed this weekend that "we are already in a recession."
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told the Financial Times on Monday that there is a greater than 50% chance of a recession.
Talkback: Is the economic downturn almost over or just beginning?
But with all due respect to the Oracle of Omaha and the Maestro, they are not telling us anything that the average American consumer didn't already know: this economy stinks.
Whether the economy is technically in recession is missing the point. Consumer confidence is anemic. Home prices continue to fall. The unemployment rate has risen sharply over the past few months. Food and energy prices are soaring.
In fact, gas prices have run up so much that Americans are even starting to give up on their love affair with the automobile: the Federal Highway Transportation reported yesterday that Americans drove 11 billion miles less this March than a year ago.
We may not find out for several months if the National Bureau of Economic Research, the official arbiter of recessions, decides to label this economic rough patch an actual recession. And the economy may not ultimately decline for two consecutive quarters, a shorthand definition.
Gross domestic product eked out a 0.6% gain in the first quarter, according to the first reading of that figure released last month. An update is due out Thursday and economists have a revised forecast of 0.9% growth.
So the most pertinent question now for consumers and investors should not be if we will enter a recession but how long will it last?
Buffett and Greenspan are divided on that question. Buffett, speaking in the German weekly Der Spiegel, said that the recession "will be deeper and longer than what many think" while Greenspan said to the FT that "the probability of a severe recession has come down markedly."

Lees verder: http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/27/markets/thebuzz/index.htm?section=money_topstories