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Commercial Times: Wait before calling people "PIGS"
2010/02/09 14:08:50 |
The global investment and banking sectors have been fond of using acronyms for publicity purposes ever since Goldman Sachs called Brazil, Russia, India and China the "BRICs" and triggered a global trend of investing in emerging markets.
Most acronyms have positive meanings, but the recently popular "PIGS, " referring to the European countries Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain that are at the center of the eurozone's debt crisis, is steeped in sarcasm.
It may be an acronym that reflects reality, but after careful consideration, in calling others pigs, people are really criticizing themselves.
The sarcasm over the four countries' high national deficits and unemployment rate smacks of the pot calling the kettle black.
Neither of the world's largest economies -- the United States and Japan -- are qualified to call other pigs, with Japan suffering from a budget deficit that was more than 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 and a public debt approaching US$10 trillion, nearly double GDP.
U.S. public debt is approaching the debt ceiling of US$12.4 trillion (about 85 percent to 90 percent of GDP).
In comparison, although being a small and wealthy country, Taiwan has also been beset by expanding imbalances between revenues and expenditures in recent years. Taiwan is lucky that it still can control the situation, but that does not mean that Taiwan can call other countries "PIGS." (Feb. 9, 2010) (By Elizabeth Hsu) enditem/ls
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