How American Business English Terms Began, and Where We Go from Here

BULL MARKETS AND BEAR MARKETS:

HOW AMERICAN BUSINESS ENGLISH TERMS BEGAN, AND WHERE WE GO FROM HERE

Remarks by Karl Stoltz, Deputy Chief of Mission,

U.S. Embassy Copenhagen to the

Handelsskolerrnes Engelsklærerforening

Friday, November 14, 2014

Introduction

[Slide 1]

Thanks; personal background.

Since I have a love of linguistics and word origins, I am thrilled that you have invited me to speak to you today and give the keynote address. By the way, a “keynote” was not always a speech.

It began in classical music, where the keynote is a sound that sets the tone for the rest of the concert (such as D Minor in “Brahms’ Lullaby in D Minor”). So I hope my remarks today bring you a very harmonious conference.

Since you are all teachers of English, I thought I’d provide a few more word definitions. Perhaps I should begin with the definition of “what is a diplomat?”

Technically, a diplomat is anyone who has received a diploma. Graduates from medieval schools were all called diplomats.

The word diploma is from Latin term for “a letter doubled over,” which is the way special documents that were meant to be kept confidential were handled in the days before cryptography.

So combining an educated person with access to secret papers gives us a general idea of the modern kind of diplomats. Here is another modern version [show slide 2].

OK, so now that I have introduced myself, I’d like to greet you all. The way we greet one another in English., with “hi,” sounds a lot like the Danish “Hej,” so I think we can credit the Vikings for bringing that word into our language, although some scholars say that in English it began as a contraction for “How are you?,” originally as “Hiya” and then “Hi.”

Our more formal greeting, “Hello,” began as a call that hunters would make in the woods to one another so they did not mistake another person for a deer or a fox. It was pronounced “Hal-LOO” in earlier times.

It did not become a common greeting when meeting someone in person until modern times, first used on the telephone because – as in hunting – one could not see the person on the other end of the line. Thomas Edison preferred the sailors’ greeting of “Ahoy!” when he spoke on the phone, and many simply picked up the receiver and waiting for something to happen.

Of course, nowadays, kids in both America and Denmark usually greet each other with “Wassup?,” so our languages are always evolving.

The Evolution of Business English

Likewise, the way we describe business and commerce has evolved greatly over the years, and many of the expressions one encounters in the modern corporate environment – around the world – comes from earlier eras and earlier forms of trade.

Since my remarks today are about “Bull Markets and Bear Markets: American Business English Then and Now,” let me start with the origins of those two terms. [show slide 3]

There are a few modern definitions of those terms. I like these: “a Bull Market is a random movement in the market that causes every investor to mistake himself for a financial genius;” and

“a Bear Market is a 6-to-18 month period when your kids get no allowance and your spouse gets no jewelry.”

But in truth, we give our economic trends the names of animals from a time when one of the world’s most popular sports was animal-fighting and when one of our largest commodities traded was animal furs.

A bull market, when most stocks are rising, gets its name from the way a bull tosses up his head and charges forward bravely no matter what stands in front of him.

The name for a bear market comes from the old saying, “Don’t sell the skin before you’ve caught the bear;” in other words, don’t place bets on things you don’t yet have.

So when economic trends and share markets are bullish, you should hang on tight and enjoy the ride. And if pessimism prevails and bears are running the show, it’s best to try to save your skin.

The U.S. Economy

I’m happy to report that today, the bulls are winning in the U.S. economy, although if you follow American politics, our recent mid-term elections seem to indicate that there are still a lot of bears around, and a few more elephants than before, too.

Likewise, in Europe we still see a lot of grim forecasts and economic pessimism; even though the world is largely emerging from several years of the worst financial crisis we have seen in decades.

And I am not an economist, so I cannot predict with any accuracy where the European, or American, or global economy will be going from here, but I have reason for a lot of optimism.

Let me cite a few statistics to show why: [show slide 4]

If you think back five or six years, to 2008 and 2009 when Barack Obama became our first African-American President, our economy was hemorrhaging, most of the U.S. auto industry was staving off bankruptcy, Wall Street share values were tumbling, one in five Americans had no health insurance, our federal budget deficit was at its highest levels ever, and the U.S. was still the world’s largest importer of energy resources and the greatest contributor to carbon emissions linked to climate change.

Today, the U.S. economic is growing at a more rapid rate than almost every other country, the American auto industry has turned around dramatically, the stock market is hitting record highs, sweeping new regulations have reformed Wall Street and banking practices, about 85% of Americans now have proper medical insurance, , our federal budget deficit has been reduced by over $1.2 trillion U.S. dollars, the U.S. is no longer an importer of foreign energy products but has actually become a net exporter, renewable energy’s share of the energy market has quintupled, and U.S. carbon emissions have dropped 17% and are now at their lowest levels since the 1960s. [show slide 5]

If you consider that much of that has been achieved by a President faced with an opposition-led House of Representatives and low levels of trust from the general public, imagine what Barack Obama could have achieved with more political and popular support.

So why hasn’t President Obama – at least in the United States -- received the credit that he deserves for these achievements? For various reasons.

You have probably heard the parable of the frog in boiling water – it will jump out quickly if the water is already boiling, but will sit in the pot and cook itself to death if the temperature is increased gradually.

The opposite is also true -- because the U.S. economy after the fiscal crises of 2008 and 2009 only recovered its strength very gradually, with a lot of pain in the process, many people forget that the President and his economic team inherited a fiscal melt-down when they took office, and steered America away from a second Great Depression.

Adding to the sense of disillusionment, many people viewed President Obama as a miracle worker when first elected. In fact, he hasn’t been able to accomplish everything he set out to do. He promised to change the divisive political culture of Washington. That clearly has not happened, although I argue that he does not bear most of the blame for that.

And, of course, there have been many initiatives that have sputtered in today’s politically divided Congress – raising the minimum wage, enacting broad immigration reform, finally closing down Guantanamo, taking meaningful action against gun violence and much more.

We clearly have much more to achieve, inside America and around the world, working in partnership with countries like Denmark. But I feel we have a great opportunity to do so in the near future, beginning with a new Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement between the United States of America and the EU, which I hope will be concluded and signed in 2015.

Today, the United States is Denmark’s third-largest trading partner, after Germany and Sweden. And just as you can find many familiar American products here in Denmark, when you go travel to the U.S., you will find a lot of Danish products too. Some are famous, like Maersk shipping containers, Bang & Olufsen speakers, Egg chairs by Arne Jacobsen, Ecco shoes, Royal Copenhagen china, Armour ham, and, of course, LEGOs.

But some are not as well known, such as some of the world’s best solar power devices, almost half of the windmills providing Americans with renewable wind power, building insulation, industrial machinery, fish and other food products, fashion items and pharmaceuticals – did you know, for example, that about 90 percent of the insulin in the world is produced by a company here in Denmark?

To cite two recent examples in the field of medicine, still awaiting final approvals: Novo Nordisk has developed a new ultralong-lasting insulin medication named Tresiba that is in the final stages of FDA approval. Based on preliminary tests, it not only has a significant positive effect on diabetes, but also has great potential to help lower cholesterol and facilitate weight loss. If you consider how many people in America suffer from obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes today, you can understand why Novo Nordisk shares in the stock market are rising so rapidly this year.

And Bavarian Nordic, another Danish company, in partnership with U.S. pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, is in the process of developing and testing a vaccine that shows great potential to stop the Ebola virus. It won’t be ready for active testing for several more months, but it is one more example of how Denmark is becoming the medical equivalent of “Silicon Valley,” and how these close partnerships with U.S. firms means more economic growth and better health for everyone.

But even though both America and Europe have strong regulations and safeguards to protect consumers … from food and drug safety controls to strict environmental standards … our standards are not the same, and a company that wants to import their goods across the Atlantic faces incredible challenges to meet the rules of both regions. Sometimes it is as simple as different measurements or packaging.

Large corporations can overcome that, but thousands of Small and Medium Enterprises, services and innovative young entrepreneurs are forced to focus on only one market because of the different regulatory standards and tariffs.

Imagine the boost to trade, productivity, job creation and growth if we had 100% free trade between the EU and the United States. The world’s two largest economies would not only spur growth on both sides of the ocean, but would help set a global standard for similar, high-value free trade agreements elsewhere.

We don’t need to use our imagination to picture that: right now, U.S. diplomats and our counterparts in the EU countries and in many other countries around the world are working hard to negotiate new far-reaching free trade agreements.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, would unite the world’s two largest economies – America’s and the EU’s – with an agreement that would create a huge boost to the economies of both continents.

It is close to becoming a reality. But I would ask each of you, if you agree with the principles of open trade, to help. Most people have a very limited understanding of this new Free Trade Agreement, which allows those who want to protect more narrow interests to use scare tactics and delay its approval. As teachers of our future business leaders, I encourage you to encourage your students to help find ways to promote an open dialogue on free trade.

The U.S. Embassy stands ready to assist you, with guest speakers, websites and social media links, and … coming soon … a video contest in cooperation with DI which will invite Denmark’s top business students to make videos that help explain why trade matters to every Danish citizen, with the best entries reaching wide audiences across the country.

Money Talks

We can talk about the benefits all the time, but most people I know will say, to quote a famous American money, “Show me the money.” [show slide 6]

So I will. I’d like to start off by describing where the names of American money…and some uniquely American business terms…come from.

The Almighty Dollar does not, in fact, get its name from America. It began in the town of Jáchymov, in what is now the Czech Republic. In the 1400s, there was a prosperous silver mine in that valley area, and the coins that nobles in the region minted were called “Joachimsthalers” or just “thalers,” from the German word for a valley, “thal.”

The coins were traded widely across Europe, so by the time America was founded, any large silver coin was called a “thaler” or “dollar.” When America created its new currency in 1794, we didn’t have paper money yet, so we simply adopted the same name.

The $ symbol you see used to represent the dollar does not come from the Czech Republic or Germany, but from Spain. It was originally a fancy way to write the number 8, and the Spanish pieces of eight were a popular alternate form of currency in America’s colonial period. They were stamped with a large S, for Spain, and when they grew worn down, local mints would add two lines to the surface to make them into a simple for the number 8. When you wanted to make change with a piece of eight, you could break off a half or quarter or eighth of the same coin. Just try that with a DK50 coin now!

American dollars have many other slang names, too. They are called bucks because cowboys in the Wild West and other American colonials often carried buckhorn knives, blades made with deer-antler handles. Along with hunting and fighting, cowboys and colonial hunters loved to play the American card game of poker. Buck-knives were stabbed into many tables in cowboy saloons to show whose turn it was to deal next.