From FT Alphaville blog: "Taking a bath - the shape of the downturn to come"

I was looking for ways to visualize the US recession when I came across this post from FT Alphaville: 

Now that US recession is a racing certainty, the debate has moved on to the shape of things to come.V-shaped, good: a short, sharp downturn with a speedy recovery. Those who were last year telling us that all was enduringly rosy have tended to move towards this letter of the alphabet in describing the forthcoming downturn. W-shaped: a double dip. U-shaped, or Martin Sorrell’s bath-shaped or even saucer-shaped variant: a more protracted period spent at the bottom.And most feared of all, the Japanese influenced L-shaped recession: a lasting period of stagnation, bordering on economic depression.

Summary: L, U, V, W, bath and saucer shapes. 6 economic downturn shapes to remember prior to purchasing stock.

To read more: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/04/08/12137/taking-a-bath-the-shape-of-the-downturn-to-come/