A recession is a general failure of businesses across all economic sectors. That&#x27;s what the word has meant for three centuries.<p>Some modern witch doctors have literally made up arbitrary economic statistics and defined a particular pattern of those statistics to be a recession. I could define a recession to be stinky fermented soybeans and then Japan would always be full of delicious recession (mmm 納豆). You should not take either of those definitions too seriously.