BizJournals Portfolio
Home >   Business Views, Opinions and Blogs >   Business Blogs >   Market Movers >  

Animal Metaphors Gone Wild

Market Movers

by Yves Smith and Felix Salmon
Main
The LBO Bubble Bursts: Not Necessarily a Bad Thing   Why Sports Gambling Should Be Legalized

Recent Blog Posts

Links

Jul 27 2007 12:00am EDT

Animal Metaphors Gone Wild

Bear markets and bull markets are so ingrained now as part of the basic financial vocabulary that many people forget that they're actually animal-based metaphors. (Why do bears go down while bulls go up? I have no idea.) But there are other, more colorful animal metaphors, too. A bad deal is a dog; a small rise after a large fall is a dead cat bounce. Today, a friend emailed me to tell me that a deal he's been working on is "a fish on land," as in you're never quite sure whether it's dead. And then there's Bill Gross, of course, who in his latest newsletter comes up with this magnificent example of animal metaphors gone wild:

That growing lack of confidence – more so than the defaults of two Bear Stearns hedge funds and the threat of more to come – has frozen future lending and backed up the market for high yield new issues such that it resembles a constipated owl: absolutely nothing is moving.

So what happens when a roaring bull runs into a constipated owl? And since when do bulls roar, anyway? And what on earth does "pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered" mean? Will MBAs soon be forced to take a course in zoology? If you have any favorite market-based animal metaphors, do post them in the comments.

blog comments powered by Disqus
Real Business, Real Results
Out of the 'Family'

Did anyone at Microsoft ever watch the (gasp!) offensively funny show Family Guy?

Cruz Missile Lands

Ex-Morgan Stanley exec Zoe Cruz is now heading her own hedge fund. Are Wall Street's leaders done?

Scandal Chic

Martha, Bernie and Skilling know that what you wear for court can go a long way in public perception.

spotlight on

Health Care

Bad to the Bone No More

Companies such as General Mills say they're stepping up efforts to change employees' bad behavior and promote healthier lifestyles. Read More