Word: joking
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Swiss banking giant UBS takes its name from the first initials of the company's original moniker Union Bank of Switzerland. But over the past few months the Swiss have begun to joke that the acronym should stand for United Bandits of Switzerland. Fury over a tax scandal and massive losses thanks to UBS's exposure to the toxic subprime market in the U.S. is growing fast. "Those arrogant and greedy bankers are tarnishing our image," says Marie-Claire Favre between sips of her cappuccino in a Lausanne cafe. Standing in front of UBS's Lausanne office, Bernard Thevenoz...
...reason their country is surviving the current downturn better than other places. In past crises, Brazil was usually the nation in need of the largest life preserver. If it wasn't drowning under fiscal recklessness, it was being held under by draconian austerity plans. Brazil, the old joke goes, is the country of the future - and always will be. Now, in the middle of the worst global downturn for decades, Brazil could finally be the country of the moment. According to a recent study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), Brazil may be the only...
Then, Hulse cracks a joke: “Plus, it’s not like we can do worse than last season...
...joke told around Ireland's watercoolers and in its office canteens in January went like this: "What's the difference between Iceland and Ireland? One letter and six months...
...month on, though, and the joke's looking less funny and more like an accurate prediction. Ireland's banks are edging ever closer to the brink of meltdown, and some analysts say six months looks a little too generous...