Are we in a recession? The old joke goes, "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job." (Some go one step further and say, "A recovery is when <name politician here> loses his job!"
Guitar.com is reporting that Fender has laid off 300 employees at their Corona facility. And it isn't just employees. Some high-ranking executives were also given the boot, including the plant manager and assistant manager, and a number of the quality control team. This would appear to reduce the factory's output by 200-250 guitars per day.
One end result of this I suspect, is that Fender guitars will go up in price. Again.
Smells like a recession to me.