Vice President Joe Biden says the U.S. is in a depression, contradicting the view of virtually all economists, not to mention his own previous statements.

"My grandpop used to say: There was a suburb of Scranton called Minooka,” Biden explained in a speech.

“He said, ‘When the guy in Minooka's out of work, it's an economic slowdown. When your brother- in-law's out of work, it's a recession. When you're out of work, it's a depression.'”

So how does Biden view it? "Well, it's a depression. It's a depression for millions of Americans, through no fault of their own," he said.

Certainly, the U.S. economy shrank by 0.7 percent in the second quarter. Yet nearly all economists now forecast an expansion for the third quarter.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan goes so far as to predict third-quarter growth of 3 percent.

Even Biden himself in recent weeks had said the economy has been in "a great recession," explicitly stating it’s not the same as a depression.

Biden's economic policy advisor Jared Bernstein tried to take the vice president’s foot out of his mouth.

Bernstein told reporters Biden was "very accurate" that "in an economy with over 15 million people unemployed, there's a lot of folks out there that are facing deep economic struggles."

Economists, meanwhile, are coming to believe that the recession, great or not, has already have ended.

The Moody’s Economy.com/MSNBC.com Adversity Index shows that 20 percent (79) of the nation’s 384 metropolitan areas emerged from recession in August.