“Subprime” Takes the Gold

Subprime was voted the word of the year by the American Dialect Society, writes Jack Rosenthal in the NY Times Sunday magazine.

Other new terms we reluctantly became better acquainted with in 2007 include:

Liars' loans

Ninja loans (no income, no job or assets)

Jingle mail

And, of course, our personal favorite:

Exploding ARM

Financial jargon is amusing to insiders but utterly baffling to most Americans. When you communicate with clients or prospects, remember the findings of an AARP Financial survey:

Less than one-third of those surveyed said they understood the terms "basis point," "expense ratio," or "index fund" well enough to explain them to a friend or co-worker.