A recession is popularly defined as two or more consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, or declining output.  The government releases third-quarter gross domestic product figures on Thursday.  Many forecasters say they will show GDP growing at an annual rate of about 3 percent, validating a widely held belief among economists that the recession ended in June or July.  But nobody is sugar-coating the statistics, especially in the administration, which agrees with private surveys suggesting that unemployment will hover near 10 percent through most of next year.  James K. Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas at Austin, suggests too much attention is given to when recessions technically begin and not enough to other measures of the economy.  “It’s just a word.  A recession technically lasts during negative quarters.  But that does’t mean you’re back to prosperity once you have positive growth.  You’re back to prosperity when the unemployment rate is back around 4 percent,” Galbraith said.  And that, he said, could take years.  The national recession may be technically over, but the state of the economy remains in the eyes of the beholder.  Or, as Ronald Reagan liked to say, a recession is when your neighbor loses his or her job.  Depression is when you lose yours.  (Deseret News)  Lets hope that this economic growth is at least a step in the right direction.