However, Bach tells GlobeSt.com he tells this to put comfort inthe hearts of readers, rather than fear. "Yes, I think we're in arecession, but despite all the negativity, the first three monthshaven't been all that bad," he says. "The loss of jobs hasn't beenas much compared to the first three months in prior recessions.Some might say that I'm grasping at straws, because the data issubject to revision, but I thought people could use a little goodnews."

He uses a graph to show that in the past six recessions since1969, job loss in Q1 has been worse, especially in 1980, where morethan 1% of job-holders lost employment, and in 1974, where morethan 1.6% went jobless. This past quarter had less than a quarterof a percent of job loss. "This does lend credence to the view thatthe recession could be shallow," Bach says.

At RealShare Philadelphia on March 31, a panel of commercialreal estate experts agreed that recession times call for apull-back of easy lending and a slowdown in development and leases.Also, readers of GlobeSt.com have indicated that they know goodtimes aren't a rollin'. In an ongoing poll on the Web site as ofWednesday, more than 68% of respondents believe the economy hasn'thit bottom, with 90% saying they think we're nowhere near arecovery.