Insights

As a rule, I prefer to avoid the use of these acronyms whenever possible. In this case, however, I simply could not resist a nod to George Orwell's Animal Farm. In the novel you may recall that the pigs, who held a leadership position on the farm and became increasingly content with the perks associated with their power, eventually changed one of the central rules governing the farm from "all animals are equal" to "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." A similar theme can be applied to the troubled euro zone countries commonly referred to as the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain).