From a common sense standpoint right now, we’re in a recession.”

Thus spoke the venerated Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, some five months ago. In the intervening time economic prospects have done little to improve: Prices have ballooned, all the major stock market indices have continued their downward trend, major Wall Street players have either been seriously damaged or – as in the case of Bear Stearns – collapsed entirely.

Economically, things appear rather bleak in the American economy.

Consumer confidence is in the toilet, and Americans – three-fourths or more of them, according to polls conducted throughout the summer so far – appear to agree with Mr. Buffett that we are in an economic recession.

Or do they?

Eighteen days ago, the Warner Brothers’ production “The Dark Knight”, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, came to theaters around the country. Since then its total box office take has exceeded $400 million. That’s nearly twice what JPMorgan Chase originally offered for the remains of Bear Stearns.

It also doesn’t sound very recession-esque.

The fact that our economy has dropped $400 million on a single movie in that short amount of time and the fact that stadiums around the country are still filled to capacity for baseball games (unless you’re a Nationals fan) are but two very un-recessional symptoms in our economy. Throw on a quickly-simmering presidential campaign, and it almost begins to feel like the good old days again.

That, despite soaring foreclosure rates, a nose-diving dollar and a staggering rise in prices on everything from fuel to groceries. You’d almost be hard pressed to notice that there’s an economic downturn in attendance unless someone told you so, and there’s no shortage of that. “Recession” seems to be the buzz word lately, everywhere from Congress to the campaign trail to MSNBC.

It’s a little hard to believe that a country that has spent $400 million dollars to see a sequel about a guy in a far-too-tight bat suit is simultaneously contemplating an economic stimulus package and a housing bail-out.

A nation that can’t make its mortgage payments, but has spare cash enough to set records for theater proceeds: Seems a bit odd, doesn’t it?

Moreover, a nation that spends more per year on fast food than on supporting their troops in a war in a certain foreign country, all the while demanding a handout from the government in order to pay for the mortgage they never should have gotten in the first place. Seems a bit disgraceful, doesn’t it?

The essential question is this: If we Americans really are in as much financial trouble as the news media and the politicians tell us we are, then why aren’t we showing it? Where are the soup lines, the bread kitchens and the “Will work for food” placards? Certainly, judging from recent observable events, we show no signs of treating our money any more responsibly than we did before. For instance, Americans currently hold nearly $1 trillion of revolving debt – mostly in the form of credit card accounts – and show few or no signs of halting that binge.

Perhaps the recession just hasn’t caught up with all of us yet. Perhaps we’re still doing what got us into this mess in the first place: Spending beyond our means. Perhaps the recession is the inflated invention of politicians seeking election and media seeking to sell newspapers. Who knows?

An eminent economist once likened recessions to a person tightening their belt. In many ways, in fact, Americans’ spending habits have very much correlated to their waistlines in past years, growing exceedingly more morbidly obese, as the heart and vital organs labor ever harder.

As often happens, however, the obesity of the subject at hand has finally caught up with it. The current irregular heartbeat is only a shadow of the massive heart attack that is on the horizon unless we bear down, work hard and bring ourselves through this belt-tightening as a leaner, healthier, more fiscally responsible society at all levels: corporately, personally, institutionally and governmentally.

– Ryan Frederick is a senior in management from Orient.