So, what's your letter of choice?

Sukumar Ranganathan — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:56:00 GMT

I read this morning that the recovery we are seeing in the Indian economy could be a W-shaped one.
That set me thinking -- not about the economy or the recovery, but the alphabet.
The thing is, economic cycles are plotted against time, which means that not every letter can be used to describe either a boom or bust.
Time is usually plotted on the X-axis.
So, the only letters that can be used to describe economic phenomenon are those with progressive (as in going forward and not forward thinking) lettering.
1. L (a sharp fall followed by stagnation)
2. M (a sharp rise followed, in that order: by a sharp fall, a sharp rise, and another sharp fall)
3. N (a sharp rise, a sharp fall, and a sharp rise)
4. U (a sharp fall that slows into a gradual fall followed by a gradual rise, and, then, a sharp rise)
5. V (a sharp fall and a sharp recovery)
6. W
Of course, creative economists can always say things like "This is an S-on-its-side recovery" or some such.

I haven't included J in this listing because the classical way of writing the letter is to do so with a horizontal line on top. Still, that hasn't stopped people from referring to the J-curve

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A Daily Download : M

So, what's your letter of choice?