A CNN Money report says "a rising number of economists say they see signs that the battered U.S. economy could start to recover as soon as this summer." Seriously? Next question: "What shape an economic recovery will take?" asks FP Passport. "Will it be V-shaped, as the optimists hope? U-shaped, with a longer trough? Or L-shaped, like Japan in the 1990s?" Nope--apparently we're looking at an "inverted square root sign," the global financier George Soros told CNBC. "You hit bottom and you automatically rebound some, but then you don't come out of it in a V-shape recovery or anything like that. You settle down--step down." Who knew economics would require more than one alphabet? But everyone's doing the math differently. "If you are looking for some positive news from Soros, today is not the day," concludes AmericaBlog. Soros says banks are insolvent and the U.S economy is in for a "lasting slowdown." The new economy blog says a recent CEO survey "reveals deep gloom." On Friday Robert Reich said we're in a depression. After all, how can we recover when the 8.5 percent unemployment reported for March, the highest since 1983, "threatens to throttle consumer spending for months"? asks Daily Markets. And when "illegal bailouts" (says The Foundry) threaten recovery? Robert Krol offers a bunch of reasons why the current U.S. recession may end up being the longest in post-World War II history.

Still, Summer beckons and hope floats: At the Ambrosetti finance forum in Italy over the weekend, "a surprising consensus emerged that the global economy would recover from recession next year, if not before," according to the Financial Times. Even visionary economic doomsayer Nouriel Roubini noted last week that "there may eventually be light at the end of the tunnel, but not as soon as the bullish consensus makes it." Still, Paul Krugman doesn't buy it. "So far," he blogged, "there’s nothing pointing to a fundamental turnaround this year, or next, or for that matter as far as the eye can see."