Is anyone suprised by the official announcement of recession?

It's official. The United States is officially in a recession.

A recession occurs whenever the gross domestic product , the total output of goods and services, declines for two consecutive quarters.

Is anyone really suprised? I have spoken with a few people since the official news broke. I keep getting the same response. Everyone knew it and they certainly feel it, but now it is official.

Many economists agree including myself that to get out of this we need to get the financial and credit markets back to normal, and we need to continue to make progress in the housing market.

We have a lot of work to do as a country to get this economy up and running again. Whether you were happy with the outcome with the election or not. I hope the new administration coming into the White House will spark some sort of economic upturn.