BRIC vs. PIGS from Ritholtz
July 9, 2008
I really like the post on Barry Ritholtz’s blog The Big Picture , so hopefully he doesn’t mind that I republish it
BRIC vs PIGS
Posted by Barry Ritholtz on Wednesday, July 09, 2008 | 09:15 AM
I was at a lunch recently with about 10 people. One of the participants was an analyst from Portugal — smart guy, delightful accent.
The table was discussing the BRIC countries — what a tiresome acronym THAT has become — and our Portuguese pal mentioned the PIGS countries.
PIGS? What the heck is a PIGS?
It turns out that PIGS stands for Portugal, Italy, Greece & Spain — P.I.G.S.
Why so crude an acronym? They are all in, or on the verge of tumbling into, a recession. Their significance is that they are the soft white underbelly of Europe. While not as economically important as Germany or England or even France, they are still a substantial chunk of nations, consumption and output for Europe. Our dashing Portuguese analyst expects their slowdown to spread to the rest of Europe.
PIGS: Now you know.
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July 9th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Well, since you asked — I prefer a headline and a few paras, not the full post.
Besides, doing that is TERRIBLE for Your Google score.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I don’tbelieve the “PIGS” are anything to worry about all of these countries have very resilient economies and willnot undergo negative growth for any long period of time!!
December 10th, 2009 at 8:03 am
It seam out a kind of crusade against pigmeat eaters or against mediterranian countries. I think Italy or Spain ar far away better than Irland or other countries.
The “pigs” bubble was feeded by the supporting german and france economy BCE policy and now these countries are not being supported to skip his crisis, precisely created by this pro France and Germany policy…
February 15th, 2010 at 3:38 am
Its PIIGS…Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain…Ireland is considered to be a part of the piggish euro future…
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:07 am
Italy isn’t typically included in this so called PIG list and should not be; no subprime was experienced in Italy (strict lending practices), its Banks did not require bailouts like those in Germany and especially in the UK. Italy’s deficit is 5% GDP in 2010, half that in the UK, France and Germany and its total debt (internal) is 50% GDP and total debt 200% GDP. Of all the major countries in the EU, Italy is by far in the best shape, in fact Germany and France requested Italy supply TARP type funds for other nations – Italy declined - good for them!