PIGS (economics)
PIIGS or PIGS is acronym used by international bond analysts, academics, and by the international economic press that refer to the economies of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain, especially in regards to matters relating to sovereign debt markets. When rendered as "PIGS", the "I" originally referred to Italy, but has also become a reference to Ireland. Some news and economic organisations have limited or banned their use due to criticism regarding perceived offensive connotations.
History
The acronyms have long been used[1] by bank analysts, bond and currency traders dating back at least to the period of the ERM and are used by some analysts,[2] academics[3] and commentators[4][5] as a concise way to refer to the Eurozone countries of southern Europe noted for similar economic environments.[6][7][8][9][10][11]
Controversy
The term has been actively denounced as an pejorative by the Portuguese Finance Minister,[12] and some members of the Portuguese and Spanish speaking press.[12][13][14] Members of the Spanish and other international economic press continue to use the term of art in its narrow and restricted economic sense as a grouping acronym like the related BRIC.[15][16][17] Others however, notably the Financial Times and Barclays Capital have restricted or banned the term.[18][19]
Proposed corrective policies
 | This section may contain material not related to the topic of the article and should be moved to 2010 European sovereign debt crisis instead. (February 2010) |
Some European think-tanks such as the CEE Council have argued that the predicament some Mainland EU countries find themselves in today is the result of a decade of debt-fueled Keynesian policies pursued by local policy makers and complacent EU central banker,[20] and many economists have recommended the imposition of a battery of corrective policies to control public debt- such as drastic austerity measures and substantially higher taxes.
But other experts argue that an abrupt return to “non-Keynesian” financial policies isn’t a viable solution for Southern EU countries and predict the deflationary policies now being imposed on countries such as Greece and Spain might prolong and deepen their recessions.[21]
Some senior German policy makers went as far as to say that emergency bailouts should bring harsh penalties to EU aid recipients such as Greece.[22]
Regardless of the chosen corrective measure to solve the current predicament, long term stability in the eurozone requires a common fiscal policy, or else the euro could always risk breaking apart after every crisis.[23]
References
- ^ Daniel Vernet (24 April 1997). "L'Allemagne au coeur du débat français". Le Monde.
que l'argot communautaire a affublés d'un sobriquet peu élégant dans sa signification anglaise : « pigs », pour Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|work=(help) - ^ "Greece and Ireland show best returns". Investment Adviser. March 15, 2007.
In general, the weakest EU economies, called PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain), are best avoided in the near term.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|work=(help) - ^ A Portugese university
- ^ Dean J. Kotlowski (2000). The European Union: from Jean Monnet to the Euro. Ohio University Press. ISBN 0821413317.
- ^ Philip Arestis, J. S. L. McCombie, Roger William Vickerman, A. P. Thirlwall (2007). Growth and economic development: essays in honour of A.P. Thirlwall. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 184376878X.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ German Google books
- ^ Goldseiten
- ^ Von Reppert-Bismarck, Juliane (July 7–14, 2008). "Why Pigs Can't Fly". Newsweek.
- ^ "Ten years on, beware a porcine plot". The Economist. June 5, 2008.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ a b Robert Holloway (September 15, 2008). "Pigs in muck and lipstick". AFP. Cite error: The named reference "portafolio1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ J. Ramón González Cabezas (25 January 2009). "La recesión acosa al euro". Lavanguardia.es.
- ^ Federico Jimenez Losantos (16 September 2008). "Financial pigs". Elmundo.es.
- ^ "La web de Roubini propone la solución para los PIIGS: euro fuerte y euro débil".
- ^ "Japón, Francia, Reino Unido, EEUU y PIIGS, los más vulnerables".
- ^ "Krugman atribuye problemas de España a falta de unión fiscal y laboral en UE".
- ^ Anything but Porcine at Barcap ft.com blog
- ^ James Mackintosh (5 February 2010). "STUPID investors in PIGS". ft.com.
- ^ Template:Fr icon see M. Nicolas Firzli, 'Bank Regulation and Financial Orthodoxy: the Lessons from the Glass-Steagall Act' (PDF), retrieved 2010-01-04
- ^ 'Greek tragedy won’t end in the euro’s death', retrieved 2010-02-15
- ^ 'Merkel Economy Adviser Says Greece Bailout Should Bring Penalty', retrieved 2010-02-15
- ^ 'Failure is not an option when it comes to Greece', retrieved 2010-02-24