English Language FAQ

America's greatest 20th Century poet, Robert Frost. For one of Frost's best-known poems is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - you can read & hear it here .

To default on a debt is to stop repaying it. A sovereign debt default is when a country cannot make an agreed repayment on money it owes - as happened to Argentina in the early 1990s, for example. An early sign of a possible default is when the credit rating agencies downgrade the credit rating of the country concerned to 'junk bond status' - see here for a brief description (with audio) of what this means. What is a debt default? (mp3) What happens when a country defaults? Usually the national currency falls in value and this helps to make the goods of country concerned more affordable. International institutions like the IMF also arrange repayment plans or write offs/markdowns of debt. Why would a Greek default be such a big deal? It's a small country! 1. Because it owes massive amounts to some of the biggest European banks. They will lose money or 'have a hair cut' as financial traders put it. 2. Greece cannot devalue i

David Brooks writes in the New York Times: Over the decades, the word amateur changed its meaning. It used to convey a moral sensibility, but now it conveys an economic one: not getting paid. Source: 'The Amateur  Ideal' Brooks is referring to university sport in the USA but has their been a more general change? Is amateur now used largely in a pejorative way - as in 'amateur hour'?