How bad is the recession going to be?.

This shows the current recession in the US (employment decline since peak) relative to other post-war recessions. The calculation of when a recession starts is done by committee in the US (whereas in the UK it is simply two successive quarters of negative output growth). It was computed by Alex Tabarrok. (Click for larger picture.)
Some economists think things are going to turn around quickly. This is from Nicholas Bloom and Max Floetotto at Stanford. (Click for larger picture.)