PIGS

Gotta love the acronyms and abbreviations sometimes. In this case, we're discussing the ones that have to do with regions and countries. You may already know these:

• EU: The European Union
• EMEA: Europe, Middle East, Africa
• AsiaPac: No-brainer ... Asia-Pacific
• BRIC: A very mason-like term for the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, and China

Well now a new one has emerged to describe the now-debt-ridden European Union countries of Portugal, Italy (sometimes Ireland), Greece, Spain. Yes, you guessed it -- PIGS! How derogatory can you get with these? Okay, they lied their way into the EU, hiding massive mounting debt, but come on! I can't imagine the G20 summit participants sitting around saying, "Okay, let's now hear the plan from the PIGS."

Let's just hope that Spain, Hungary, India, and Taiwan don't get together to form anything.