Phillip Massey, an information-technology worker in Dublin put it well, saying that “when America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold.” The not-so veiled reference to the pandemic flu waiting to wipe us out, makes the H5N1 virus look wimpy, by comparison.

It made me wonder how soon we will run out of metaphors. The following images have been evoked, ad nauseam, to describe what the financial system had become or is going through:

• Weapon of mass destruction
• Serial killer
• Tsunami
• Shockwaves
• Earthquake
• Meltdown
• Dominoes
• Bust
• Implosion
• Orgy
• Casino