Top recession questions answered

The word "recession" seems to be popping up a lot lately. Economic uncertainty stemming from President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China have fueled the biggest stock market selloff in years, and now some economists are putting the likelihood of entering a recession by next year between 20% and 40%. The topic is clearly on people's minds: Google Trends data shows "recession" searches were recently up 1,200% in the United States. Here are some answers to the Top 3 most frequently searched questions regarding recessions. What is a recession? While there is no single universally accepted definition, two consecutive quarters of negative growth is widely considered a recession. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization called the National Bureau of Economic Research determines when the U.S. economy is in a recession, based on a number of factors including economic growth, employment, industrial production, consumer spending and retail sales. Recessions are typically...