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by Felix Salmon
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Jan 13 2009 3:32pm EDT

Glossary

Josh Giersch has a wonderful financial devil's dictionary up today. Here are some of my favorites:

Correction
What stock analysts issue after slapping a "buy" recommendation on a stock that subsequently goes to zero.

Credit default swap
A financial instrument where one party pays a fixed stream of semiannual payments, and in return for the payments receives a massive counterparty risk headache.

Currency peg
What you wear on your nose when going out to buy Icelandic kroner.

Deflation
The look on a trader's face on bonus day.

Preference shares
A way for banks to borrow money from the government at 9%, then deposit the money with the Fed and earn 0.5%.

Sub-prime mortgages
Any mortgage granted by Wachovia or WaMu.

To see the final entry, on "yield spread", I'm afraid you'll just need to check it out for yourself.

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