The 'R' word

I see that Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke has come close to using the dreaded 'R' word. In recent testimony to the US Congress he said "It now appears likely that real GDP will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly,"

The usually accepted definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.

Ben Bernanke is still predicting an upturn in the second half of 2008 and the start of 2009; I have my doubts.