Warren Buffet says we are in a recession.

Billionaire Warren Buffett said Monday that the U.S. economy is essentially in a recession even if it hasn't met the technical definition of one yet.

Buffett said in an interview with cable network CNBC the reports he gets from the retail businesses his holding company owns show a significant slowdown in purchases.

The chairman and CEO of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said millions of people have also lost equity in their homes because home prices have dropped.

The technical definition of a recession most economists use is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the nation's gross domestic product.

"I would say, by any commonsense definition, we are in a recession," Buffett said on CNBC.

I cannot imagine that there are too many economists who are willng to argue with Warren Buffett. If he says the sky is orange then by God you can bet it is orange.