Is the U.S. economy now tracking toward a recession? What would that look like?

Over the last two months, companies and consumers have signaled so much concern about the outlook for their businesses and pocketbooks that economists are slashing their forecasts for growth and beginning to raise their odds of a recession. With President Donald Trump stoking economic uncertainty by implementing wide-ranging tariffs, a steep slowdown in growth in the next several months now seems inevitable. Whether there is a recession — a period of time when the economy basically falls off a cliff — remains a matter of debate.

.