Credit crunch?
Harry McGee
Over the years a lot of people have vied to be identified as being the one who coined ‘the Celtic Tiger’.
I’ll tell ya one thing for nothing: that was a cliche as soon as it was uttered for the first time.
There’s been no soup-kitchen like queue forming to claim the glory for ‘credit crunch’.
It must be the most underwhelming description of what’s happening at the moment – which, basically, is the whole universe falling apart at the hinges.
I’m away on a fact-finding mission in France (ie a junket). And while the banks collapse, and the economy crumbles and the whole future of the universe is placed under threat, I’m worrying about the inadequacy of a phrase.
So here goes: There must be a better, more evocative phrase that will one day make a cliche of which we are all proud. Here are a couple of suggestions, none of them great.
The liquid lurch?
The credit crush?
The credit collapse?
The debt disater.
