The alphabet soup of Recessions

Here I was, thinking all recessions are the same.. no money, no jobs and lot of headless-chicken attitude (sic!) Obviously that is not the case, and as with all sciences, the science of recessions does include a tidy system to classify recessions.

An article on thebigmoney.com explains ....

Why are downturns labeled with letters?
By Martha C. White Posted Monday, January 12, 2009 - 7:42am

A popular question for economists lately has been what shape this recession will take. Will it be a “U,” a “V,” or maybe an “L”? Could we even find ourselves caught up in the roller coaster of a “W,” just when we think we’ve finally voted out that letter once and for all? What’s with the alphabet soup?

This categorization is a kind of verbal shorthand for describing the shape of the ups and downs of the gross domestic product and the broader economy.

The complete article is here