The Asian element is important: Asian carriers have kept service levels high even during the economic downturn, and feature prominently among the world's top airlines, as ranked by Skytrax in May.
It is suggested that this result, and others that follow from severe pricing pressure, will not just be a feature of downturn periods in the economic cycle, but are inherent in the super-competitiveness of the "hyper economy".
The downturn in the economy featured heavily in interviews, with many complaining of falling living standards and worsening employment prospects.
Dr. Eberts pointed to another feature of the downturn: people are much less likely to leave their jobs voluntarily.
That has led a growing number of economists to argue that the collapse of housing prices, a defining feature of this downturn, is also a critical and underappreciated impediment to recovery.
Yet most people's instinct was to characterise the shock as temporary and reversible – a V-shape disruption, featuring a sharp downturn and a rapid recovery.
One of the unique features of this downturn is that, to date, it has been largely industrial.
Perhaps the most striking feature of this economic downturn is the way it changed the rate of household formation.
Mr. Avent writes: Manufacturing states, which suffered very heavily in the downturn but bounced back relatively quickly, feature prominently on the list.
Next year's receipts may be far worse.A distinctive feature of the current downturn, moreover, is that it began in the housing market.
The shocking fragility of recently issued debt is another singular feature of the 2007 downturn — alarming numbers of defaults despite high employment and reasonably strong economic growth.
