The potential of a recession was already in the air.

But talk of a downturn really heated up over the last week. A series of new volleys in the trade war coincided with the annual central bankers meeting in Jackson Hole, plus some very volatile markets — and all of this against the backdrop of the G7 conference.

That’s on top of a still inverted yield curve, and a slowdown in the global economy. Now you’re hearing words like “inevitable.”

Well, a recession isn’t quite inevitable, and recessions aren’t often anything like the economic collapse we saw a decade ago. But the indicators are what they are, and so we called up Neil Irwin, a senior economics correspondent at “The New York Times,” to talk us through them, and tell us what to look for next.