Europe and Japan Officially in Recessions

From The Independent: It's official: eurozone collapses into its first recession:

Europe's economy officially collapsed into recession for the first time since its inception during the third quarter ... The eurozone, made up of the 15 countries that use the euro as their primary currency, shrank by 0.2 percentage points between July and the end of September, having contracted by the same margin during the preceding three months as well. ...

Germany and Italy, the continent's largest and fourth largest economies, dragged the eurozone down – both slipped into recession during the third quarter. Spain also suffered its first quarter of negative growth in 15 years. However, France just managed to maintain a positive growth rate.

From Bloomberg: Japan's Economy Shrinks 0.4%, Confirming Recession:

Japan's economy, the world's second largest, contracted more than economists expected in the third quarter, confirming it entered its first recession since 2001 as companies cut back spending.

Gross domestic product fell an annualized 0.4 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30 ...

The United States has not yet been officially declared in recession, Jeffrey Frankel who directs the program in International Finance and Macroeconomics at the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is also a member of the Business Cycle Dating Committee, says:

The weight of evidence is now overwhelming: We are currently in recession.