Such a financial catastrophe could then turn what would have been just a modest economic slowdown or mild recession into a genuine disaster.

The prospect of a mild recession turned into the reality of a deep one.

That would produce a short, mild recession.

Without a fiscal boost, a probable mild recession later this year could easily turn into something much darker - with far worse implications for the long-term public finances.

This mistake, critics charge, allowed what might have been a relatively mild recession to explode into catastrophe.