The English Alphabets and the Economic Recovery or Regression

Economists are giving shapely curves to the incipient economic recovery or regression; recovery, if you are a rank optimist, regression, if you have an ear to the ground. But the common thread that runs through all these curves are English alphabets in the upper case.

One economist is calling the recovery ‘V’ shaped. This can be interpreted as the economy doing an ominous dip before picking up miraculously. Another learned economist said it is going to be a double dip and the recovery is going to be ‘W’ shaped. Still another said that we will hit the bottom not as quickly as in ‘V’. And equally, the economic recovery will also not pick up quite as quickly. Therefore, the English alphabet of her choice is ‘U’. A gloomy economist said that the regression is going to be ‘M’ shaped; the economy will pick up twice and drop down twice. Post the second drop, it will never pick up again. Some economists are saying that English alphabets are not enough to graphically represent the recovery or regression. They have brought the symbol of square root, or, √. I leave it to you to figure out the ups and downs of the economy when it goes square root.

It is not surprising that no one has thought of ‘I’ or ‘O’. For, if it is ‘I’, is the economy on a meteoric rise or is it on a perilous fall? Can’t really be sure. Similar is the case of ‘O’; the economy comes back to wherever it started from. It does not matter if you go clockwise or anti clockwise.

Some economists have even sexed it up a little by suggesting that the economy will take the shape of 2 ‘U’s, or UU. Will the economy have a cow’s udder shaped recovery? Only time will tell.