Subprime Mortgage Crisis Adds Rich Terms to the English Language
One of the byproducts of the subprime mortgage crisis has been the introduction into mainstream speech of certain housing terms that before would have been jargon only reserved for industry insiders.
Some terms may be familiar, though you may not be sure of their precise meaning; if so, our Total Bankruptcy glossary of terms is a good place to find definitions to some of the most common as well as specialized terms that you're likely to hear in conjunction with filing bankruptcy, foreclosure, and mortgage loans and other personal loans.
However, the real entertainment comes from the invention of new terms, often done to come to grips with a difficult situation by placing it in a humorous light.
We'll take a look at two sources for some of the best and most intriguing terms that have come out of the recession and its constituent industries.
Urban Dictionary Terms Add a Humorous Spin to Economic Woes
Urban Dictionary is a great place to find the latest slang having to do with the housing crisis and credit crunch, as users submit terms and phrases of local or national usage, often euphemistic, that have to do with a variety of topics, finance among them.
Consider a few terms from recent weeks in their "word of the day" feature:
- Application for Debt: An offer of a credit card from a financial institution.
Wife: What did we get in the mail today?
Husband: Just an Application for Debt.
- Cash Pedal: The accelerator pedal in your car during times of high gasoline prices. So named because its prodigious use will lead to more cash spent on gas.
You wouldn't be putting $100 a week in that thing if you would just be a little smoother on the cash pedal.
- Bad Fuel Day: The mood or feeling one experiences after having just filled his or her vehicle with $4.00+ per gallon gasoline. (Usually consists of a sense of great economic despair, impending doom, anger, frustration, depression and/or a combination of all the above)
"Leave me alone. I'm having a bad fuel day!"
"On Language" Guide to the Subprime Mortgage Crisis: "Sub Sub Prime" Terms
Jack Rosenthal's entertaining "On Language" column in the New York Times profiled the recent decision of the American Dialect Society to vote the term "subprime" their "word of the year."
While that word covered a realm of underhanded practices that described what seemed to be the quintessential concept of the previous year, Rosenthal decided to pick up where the ADS left off by coming up with a list of "sub sub prime" terms. As he claimed, the Orwellian double-speak wasn't limited to that one term.
Here are his entries, not invented, but still, in their way, oddly descriptive of the deceit:
ExplodingARM: an adjustable-rate mortgage for which the interest rate goes up so fast that borrowers, are driven out of their homes because their monthly payment jumps too high for them to pay.
Foreclosure rescue: while it sounds good, foreclosure rescue is a scam to bilk unsuspecting homeowners of their property. A homeowner signs over the house title to someone who promises to pay off the outstanding debt.
Jingle mail: when owners abandon their homes and mail the keys back to the bank.
Liars' loans: loans offered by banks that have "practically begged borrowers to fib about their income," according to Joe Nocera, the Times business columnist.
Ninja loans: an acronym for No Income, No Job or Assets. Loans for poorly-documented applications.
No-docs and low-docs loans: applications with no, or few, documents required.
One-stop shop: a mortgage agency that offers a full-service system: house, mortgage lawyer, inspector and appraiser. Typically shady.
Toxic waste: the lowest-rated segment of bundled mortgage securities sold off to investors.
Upside down: when you owe more than your house is worth.
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