A recent survey has shown that the United States is being unfairly connected with the world economic downturn and as the cause of the banking crisis.
Headlines such as 'US Toxic Debt Ruins World Economy', 'US Institution Responsible for Biggest Fraud in History' and 'Unregulated US Banks Cause Credit Catastrophe' have always been assumed to refer to the USA.
Unfairly assumed, it now transpires. For it seems that approximately 87% of the world's population did not realize that the abbreviation U.S. could in fact stand for a range of other phrases, not just the most common - United States (of America). The second most common meaning of US is Useless or Unserviceable, generally thought to originate from the military.
When the possibility is accepted that some of these headlines are actually based on the alternative meanings of the abbreviation, the United States could be perceived as being less responsible for the state of affairs than generally thought.
For this reason it is important that from now on the term 'US US' is always used when refering to these issues.
