Matthew Rose has a fun article in today’s Wall Street Journal titled “The Devil’s Dictionary — Financial Edition.” It is an amusing account of how certain financial terms have taken on a new meaning in this post-crash world. Here’s a sample.

SUBPRIME, adj. A measure of diminished intellectual capacity and increased financial mendacity.

TOXIC ASSETS, n. 1. A collection of bad loans and other botched financial bets that caused big losses for banks, prompted a credit crunch and sank the economy (Sept. 2008 to May 2009). 2. Long-term investments that will pay handsomely when the housing market recovers (June 2009 onward).

I’d like to offer up an addition to the dictionary:

FINANCIAL GLOBALONEY n. The persistent but misguided belief that global financial markets are “safe as houses” despite repeated evidence to the contrary. Also the rhetoric used to support this belief and to sell it to investors, policy-makers, etc. See Veseth, Globaloney 2.0.

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