[ccebook.cn]The World in 2010

Business
The jargon of 2010
Nov 13th 2009
Way beyond English
Hard times beget harsh language. Reckless loans led to the credit crunch, then to
meltdown. When the jargon of the 2008-09 recession wasn’t harsh, it was often
mystifying: credit default swaps, collateralised debt obligations and quantitative
easing. What vocabulary will executives need to familiarise themselves with next?
The recovery will spawn its own jargon in 2010. Policymakers will spend the year
planning exit strategies—ways to withdraw from the markets and companies they
rushed to rescue. Hopes of a sustainable recovery will depend on deleveraging by
both consumers and firms, an effort to pay off the debt that piled up during the
boom. The post-recession economy may have a different dynamic from the precrisis
one; there is talk of an economic reset to a new normal.
Corporate boards will be preoccupied with risk management or, as it will be
fashionable to say, early warning. Early-warning antennae should twitch when they
detect the word smart, signifying a return to old ways but with lessons learnt:
bankers are already talking about smart securitisation. Virtuous financiers will extol
the importance of making a difference through impact investing. And, naturally,
executives everywhere will have to keep up with the latest carbon jargon.
Tech-savvy types will dazzle as usual. In particular, virtual reality will in 2010 make way for augmented
reality: overlaying the real world with digital information, typically with the help of a smart-phone.
The most-used piece of jargon in business will not be a word or phrase but a letter: W. No, not George W.
Bush, but a w-shaped economy, in which the recovery peters out in the second half of the year as stimulusspending
fades, then resumes in 2011.
Really clever CEOs, however, will want to show a subtle understanding of the fastest-growing emerging
markets. They will like to lace their presentations with references to Chinese culture. In a year of conflicting
signals for business, the Chinese word for “contradiction”, maodun—which, bosses will sagely point out,
contains both a spear and a shield—may come in handy.
Leo Abruzzese: editorial director, North America, Economist Intelligence Unit
Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.
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