Well whaddyou know, the mortgage industry impacts the culture at large. The American Dialect Society chose “subprime” as the word of the year! According to CNN it beat out “waterboarding”, “Facebook”, and “Googleganger?”.
The group of wordsmiths chose “subprime” as 2007′s Word of the Year at its annual convention Friday.
“‘Subprime’ has been around with bankers for awhile, but now everyone is talking about ‘subprime,”‘ said Wayne Glowka, a spokesman for the group and a dean at Reinhardt College in Waleska, Georgia. “It’s affecting all kinds of people in all kinds of places.”
About 80 members of the organization spent two days debating the merits of runners-up “Facebook,” “green,” “Googleganger” and “waterboarding” before voting for an adjective that means “a risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage or investment.”
2007 was truly a remarkable year for the mortgage industry, but alas for all the wrong reasons. I think it will be remembered as a watershed year and people will be talking about its impact for a long long time to come.
