Since the start of the global financial crisis, we’ve all had to tighten our belts… but, more importantly, expand our vocabulary.
Who’d ever heard of “subprime mortgages” until the use of the product sent the US and subsequently the global banking system into meltdown?
A raft of odd terms followed - tail risk, black swans, quantitative easing, the recapitalisation of banks, bond spreads…
Thanks to the “Grexit”, we’re now all experts on the financial vicissitudes of the southern European states, while any man on the street will be able to regale you with the role of the European Financial Stability Facility, the ECB and the strangely-named Herman Van Rompuy.
We even know who Mario Monti is.
This week another term came to the fore in the form of the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) thanks to the scandal engulfing Barclays and its beleaguered boss Bob Diamond.
Once Twitter was abuzz with talk of Justin Beiber, the G20 and Euro 2012; now the chatter is on the average interest rate charged by banks in London when lending to other banks.
As the world lurches from one financial crisis to the next, we should take solace in the fact that though our savings are gone, we are at least all learning.