Financial Mumbo Jumbo

Over the past six months, the average person in the street has become an expert on banking and finance – it has been forced on them.

And with such knowledge comes a new language, full of clichés and the only language that Finance Minister Brian Lenihan is capable of speaking at this time.

‘Going forward’, ‘huge challenges’, ‘structural deficit’ etc are all phrases that we have found ourselves saying since Christmas.

So for the wordsmiths among you – a quick count of the Budget speech on Tuesday.

Lynchmaster Lenihan used the word ‘Economy’ 32 times, ‘Banks’ 12 times, ‘Fairness’ 11 times, ‘Levy’ ten times, ‘Crisis’ four times, ‘Tax’ and ‘Deficit’ three times and ‘Challenge’, ‘Fair’, Confidence’ and ‘Serious’ twice.