Economics Humor: PIGS & The Eurozone Crisis

The European economy is not doing so well, and it’s no laughing matter – especially for Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain as they struggle to cope with debt and rest their hopes on a bailout, or exit from the Euro.

But every cloud has a silver lining and economies are resilient and always do – and will – find a way to bounce back. In the meantime, it’s Friday and with the weekend around the corner, here’s some light hearted humor to relieve some tension on what is a bad situation:

The European economy is not doing so well, and it’s no laughing matter – especially for Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain as they struggle to cope with debt and rest their hopes on a bailout, or exit from the Euro.

But every cloud has a silver lining and economies are resilient and always do – and will – find a way to bounce back. In the meantime, it’s Friday and with the weekend around the corner, here’s some light hearted humor to relieve some tension on what is a bad situation:

Al Gore seems to think that Portugal’s economy is on the right track and is coming out of recession.

[quote]Someone should tell Al Gore that Portugal is not coming out of the Great Recession. In fact, Portugal’s economy is getting worse, as can be seen by the high sovereign risk, usually one of the highest 10 in the world in the last months. This is so because major bad economic decisions have been made in the last years, namely in alternative energy.

The total cost for Portuguese consumers and taxpayers is estimated at 700 million euros this year. But costs are growing exponentially.

Just like Spain, we’re going down, while unemployment keeps going up, and the promised green jobs are one of Europe’s lowest. So, Mr. Gore: If some Portuguese told you that “I feel fine”, I can bet he felt like the farmer in your nasty story![/quote]

From NoTricksZone

“What’s the difference between Iceland and Ireland? One letter and six months.”

Suggesting Ireland’s economy would soon go bust like Iceland’s, this joke has apparently done the rounds in London’s financial circles. And the president of Iceland is not at all pleased.

It is “just a recent example” of the “arrogance of the British,” Olafur Ragnar Grimsson told the Irish Times at the international financial summit in Davos, Switzerland.

“People in London should worry more about the future of London as a financial centre and the economy in Britain, and how that will fare in the future and their own problems, than playing jokes about Iceland and Ireland,” he said.

[quote]The Greek economy is so bad, the currency is no longer the euro. It’s the gyro. – Israel Carrasco, Anaheim, California [/quote]

“The voters in Spain there have elected a socialist government. The new prime minister, Jose Zapatero immediately lashed out at President Bush, calling the war in Iraq a disaster, calling for all Spanish troops to come home from Iraq immediately. This obviously upset President Bush. Today, he took decisive action. He said, ‘From now on, in the United States, Spanish rice will now be known as Freedom rice.'” — Jay Leno