RECESSION?….In a battle of local economic forecasters, UCLA says we’re not in a recession but Chapman University says we are: “Chapman economists believe overall U.S. spending will decline through most of 2008. Consumer spending will fall $100 billion, representing a full percentage-point decline in real growth of gross domestic product.” The good news: nationally, they think the recession will be mild and the economy will start to turn up by the end of the year. The bad news: California’s recession still has a couple of years to run.
