Richard Monson, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and chair of the group that conducted the study, says, "We judged that the most reasonable shape is a line through the origin".
But they also need to be thinking about the longer term issue of leaving the planet in reasonable shape for future generations.
On Labor Day afternoon in Milwaukee, President Obama finally began to vigorously push the kind of high-profile, rebuild-America infrastructure campaign that is absolutely essential if there is to be any real hope of putting Americans back to work and getting the economy back into reasonable shape over the next few years.
"They were quite rigorous workouts and I knew that if I passed the test in reasonable shape, I'd be fine for our game against West Germany".
Although this may sound like a Catch-22, it is a good idea to have the finances in reasonable shape before seeking investment, and to clearly document these.
And I see no compelling grounds for confidence that if that does happen, we will survive the transition in reasonable shape.
With signs that the economy was in reasonable shape, bond prices fell, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to 4.65% from 4.60% late Tuesday.
"We will have to wait until late October for the first official GDP estimates for the third quarter, but today's data confirms that the UK economy was in reasonable shape going into the referendum vote, while other recent data suggests that the consumer side of the economy held up reasonably well over the summer".
He reiterates that economics is not Mr McCain's strong suit a fact Mr McCain freely admits when the cameras are not rolling.Exit polls in Florida gave Mr Romney the edge among voters who think the economy is in reasonable shape.
Mr Clegg's inner circle standing on the free-market liberal wing of their party believe that they must win over more such "soft Tories" to replace lost left-wingers, and survive the next election in reasonable shape.So a big choice looms for the party.
