Recession: renaming the Dow index the Doom index

The official announcement of a Recession, backdated like stock options to a year ago, has finally arrived. In response, the American stock market fell nearly 9 percent in a single session, although European markets took an even bigger slide. The definition of a recession, from an academic panel of seven, is:

“A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough.”

But the sharp declines on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 679.95 points or about 7.7 percent, are said to have been more about profit-taking than the worldwide financial recession or depression disaster, or how to survive it. Because, you know, its all about looking at the little things and ignoring the big.