A recession occurs when people around you are unemployed. (There is help in coping where I found this image.)

A depression is when you're unemployed.

I thought I was recessed, but I found out recently I've been depressed this last year.

Others are too.

• The people who work for Comdex, now owned out of San Francisco, are depressed.
• Sierra On-Line has gone belly-up, and parent Vivendi Universal Games is slashing employment.
• Precision Type is, as they say, "sleeping with the fishes."
• 321 Studios has reportedly dumped 95% of their employees.
• New claims for unemployment compensation were 349,000 last week, up 13,000 from a week ago.
• Orders for durable goods are down for the second month in a row.
• Inflation is rising, and is now well ahead of wage growth.

The economy continues to grow, we're told, but unevenly, with few new jobs, and lower-paying jobs at that. Yes, Wall Street is spinning all this as good news, "healthy and sustainable" is the new buzzword.

But until I start working I don't believe a word of it. Neither should you.