President is wrong-this is a recession!

Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, writes:

President Bush says that the economy is not in a recession. He's wrong. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy has lost jobs for three consecutive months while the private sector has lost jobs for four consecutive months. This has never happened except in periods associated with recessions. The private sector has now lost 320,000 jobs since November.

Need more evidence? The unemployment rate is up 0.7 percentage points from a year ago, residential construction continues to fall, and nonresidential construction is now falling as well. Consumption, which accounts for 70 percent of gross domestic product, has been flat since November. Despite all this, President Bush still doesn't think we're in a recession? I guess that's no surprise coming from someone who thinks that things are going well in Iraq.