'Global economic crisis' is a mouthful. If one must use eight syllables every time one wishes to refer to the colossal mess we're in, one will grow weary.
None of the others are very much more concise. Current financial problems has seven. Worldwide credit crunch uses a snappy five, but it's a little tabloid.
We all know what we're talking about. This is afraid-of-the-dark for grownups. This is your most dreadful imaginings come alive.
Something so ghastly should have a name of its own.
A name gives a face to a thing. A single syllable employed to identity the problem leaves us more sentence room (we hope?) for a solution.
G20 leaders met today to discuss solutions to name.
Fears about the effects of name deepened today on news that unemployment has topped 18%.
What to call it? What name best captures the sense of it?
I have a suggestion. Some will rightly demur: Yes, he's been an imbecile, but this is the work of more than just a single one.
Nonetheless we are in this mess because we have have entirely ignored - or been blithely unaware of - the lessons of the 20th century. Not one single person seems more emblematic of the foolhardiness, the hubris, the casual disregard that has brought us to this sorry pass.
I propose we call it George.