Already the accumulation of lost data and work time would cause a major recession.

A recession caused by a falling stock market, obviously, could help business.

This will stretch out the period of adjustment and could cause a recession.

But he said the current credit restraint was not severe enough to cause a recession.

"It wouldn't take much downward movement in consumer spending to cause a recession."

But it also caused a deep recession as wages rose less quickly then prices.

That would be serious but insufficient to cause a steep recession.

Another 500-point loss might have caused a final collapse and a severe recession.

"The economy has so much momentum that it would take some major shock to cause a recession at this point."

Given the overall health of the economy, no one believes that the price hikes will cause a recession.