Pigs spreading sausages.

Think of collateral debt obligations (CDOs) as poisoned sausages, says the economist Nouriel Roubini, with sub prime mortgages as the rat meat in them.

Traditionally you can get a Wurstsemmel (a roll filled, usually, with Extrawurst a special kind of thinly sliced sausage, often with a slice of Cheese and a Pickle or Cornichon) at a Butcher or at the delicatessen counter in a supermarket.

In the Bronx or in Soho, in Washington Square or Times Square, in front of the New York Public Library or near a hot dog stand, across all the planets races, the banal vies with the exceptional for one s attention.

And I remember getting out of the water and my hands feeling so painful and looking down at my fingers, and my fingers were literally the size of sausages because you know, we're made partially of water when water freezes it expands, and so the cells in my fingers had frozen and expanded and burst.

With a mental effort, the layperson can then imagine these poisonous sausages, otherwise known as toxic assets, spreading through the world s banks, ruining their digestions and crippling the economies they are meant to serve.