... in practical terms, if you can.

My impression is that this term is so vague as to be almost meaningless, which explains its popularity. (Whenever I hear BITR, I always think, "Sure, a bump the size of Everest.")

Also, what's the real difference -- again, in practical, real-life terms -- between, say, a "4-5" scenario & a "7-8"?

I suspect that every person has a different picture of what these numbers mean. Welcome to the Millennial Rorschach Test.

-- cruising down (theroad@90.mph), August 05, 1999

Answers

"bump in the road" means that any problems encountered will be so minor as to cause no disturbances in "the world as we know it".the y2k errors related to fiscal year seems to be "bump in the road"...so far....

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), August 05, 1999.

Bump in the road = You hit a bump with your car at 55 MPH, you go off the road a little and stir up some dust! No biggie. Bump in the road = You hit a bump with your car at 75 MPH, you go off the road and back on but you lose control and hit an oncomeing semi, which hits a greayhound bus and the people behind in both directions rear end them! Bump in the road could have different meenings.

-- Rooster Cogburn (Gotitlate@wow.com), August 05, 1999.

The bigger the bump, the more you slow down.

If its a fairly good size bump, the economy might just slow down to a fraction of it's current pace for many years.("4-5")

If it's a "7-8" maybe your grandkids will see a booming economy like this side of "the bump".

-- Roger (pecosrog@earthlink.net), August 05, 1999.

Think of a "Minefield!" (Because you don't know where the bumps will be until you hit one) At least with Mogels, while skiiing you can see them coming and pick the best route. Not so with this terrain. Remember "The easiest route is always mined!" - Murphy's Law's of War. I used to believe Murphy was a "Grunt" (Foot Soldier), now I'm beginning to believe he was a programmer!

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), August 05, 1999.

It all depends upon your perspective. Hit a toad in the road a couple of weeks back. For me it was a very minor bump in the road (1); for him it was a 10!

If you are unemployed for 5 years, it's a 9. If you are working, it may be a 5...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), August 06, 1999.