English collective nouns…a school of fish, parliament of owls, pride of lions, Congress of baboons…making the world go round.

The English language has some delightfully anthropomorphous collective nouns for the various groups of animals.

We are all familiar with a herd of cows, a flock of chickens, a school of fish and a gaggle of geese.

However, less widely known is:
- a pride of lions,
- a murder of crows (as well as their cousins the rooks and ravens…recall the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds"?)
- an exaltation of larks and,
- presumably because they look so wise, a parliament of owls.

Now consider a group of baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. Ironically,  what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons? Believe it or not... a congress!

Dedicated to the politicians of the world…especially to those on both sides of the Atlantic responsible for the current global economic woes and specifically, to that collective crew in Washington DC who literally personify this noun.

Against this backdrop, with the scope for fiscal and monetary policy ammunition running desparately short and stimulus all but exhausted, politicos might be expected to grasp the nettle, overcome their squeamishness about confronting vested interests opposed to change and push through reforms to improve the supply side of the economy; policies such as making it easier to hire and fire, promoting greater competition and investing more in training.

How about the people deserving a keen "convocation of eagles" in these national legislatures...