… and if it were only a silly comedy staring Rick Moranis, we would be okay. But as it turns out, our economy may actually shrink in the coming months (which is part of the textbook definition for economic recession).

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress on Wednesday that the U.S. economy could shrink over the next few months.

“A recession is possible,” Bernanke told Congress. “Our estimates are that we’re slightly growing at the moment, but we think that there’s a chance that for the first half as a whole there might be a slight contraction.”

Of course, the alternate view of this situation is the one that comes from the White House, where softer phrases like “slowdown” are used to describe our poorest financial health in decades.

Is there any good news to go along with this?

Well, for one thing it’s important to remember that our economy is an endless cycle of ups and downs. While we don’t know how long it will be down, it’s destined to rally and rise at some point in the future. Bernanke thinks that upswing could come as early as the latter half of this year and into 2009.

Of course, Bernanke is one man. But it’s still nice to hear a note of optimism once in a while!