Soros predicts stagnation

For months now, economists and finance experts have been speculating about what shape an economic recovery will take. Will it be V-shaped, as the optimists hope? U-shaped, with a longer trough? Or L-shaped, like Japan in the 1990s?

Nope, investor George Soros told Reuters Financial Television, it will be "an inverted square root sign":

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."

"I don't expect the U.S. economy to recover in the third or fourth quarter so I think we are in for a pretty lasting slowdown," Soros said. He expects some U.S. growth in 2010.