Da terra dos leitões

Acronym of the day: PIIGS
Published December 10th, 2009
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that some bearish international investors have coined a new term for the countries that they believe are the weak links of the euro zone: PIIGS — which stands for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain.
That follows on the heels of the oft-used term for the most important emerging markets — the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. And then there’s the less popular acronym for the dangerous, nuclear-armed states of Pakistan, Iran, and North Korea. That group is called, uh, never mind.