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.

8 Responses to “Acronym of the day: PIIGS”

  1. muller says:

    ah ha, now I know

  2. Dr. Dorothy Everts says:

    Why isn’t Iceland one of the “I”s? — it almost went bankrupt last year…

  3. kafoe says:

    Iceland is not in the euro zone, it’s not even part of the EU (yet).

  4. Uwe says:

    How much did it cost to have a marketing company develop that phrase?

  5. Paulo says:

    and iceland and Uk? uk has the largest deficit in EU.
    the correct name is ukpiiigs. sounds nice.

  6. Gonz says:

    The UK is part of the European Union but does not use the Euro.

    The Pound is one of major reserve currencies in the world (USD, Euro, Yen, Pound).

    I doubt the UK would ever give up the Pound for the Euro. It would be like America giving up American Football for Soccer.

  7. Ricardo says:

    Still Britain is already on the count. Now the name is something like:

    PIIGGS
    (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Great Britain, Spain)

    And soon, with Hungary, even if it doesn’t use the Euro, I’m already predicting the following:
    PHIIGGS

    XD

  8. Pilar says:

    Proud to be PIIGS! sept 29th, 2012, protest in Madrid, Spain http://willyloman.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/protests-build-in-spain.jpg