ALLISON AUBREY: Yeah, I am skeptical. I guess the typical spray from a sneeze is only a few feet, which is obviously much shorter than the distance between America and Hong Kong. If the Hang Seng Index catches a cold, it’s far more likely to come from shaking America’s hand, which is a much more likely way of transmitting a cold.

MONTAGNE: And it may be time to rethink the entire cliché. Maybe when America drinks too much, then Nikkei gets a hangover.

INSKEEP: Or even when the whole world repeats the same stock phrase, we all lose money together.

Nyuck. Nyuck. But don’t give the literati at NPR too much props. That exchange came two days after its Alex Chadwick said this:

There’s that old business expression, when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. And I guess some people think it’s more than the U.S. sneezing now. The U.S. may be coming down with the flu so the rest of the world is getting ready for—I don’t know what—pneumonia?
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