Big, bureaucratic financial organisations such as the International Monetary Fund aren't known for the brevity or accessibility of their communications. They tend to live in lingoland.

So, we got a bit of a land in here this week when the IMF published a report that said Ireland should "internalise the externalities" affecting its boom-bust-boom housing market.

Do what to the which, now? Would that be sore?

It turns out that “internalising the externalities” is a real thing. It is when the internal costs of a business are adjusted to match its external, social costs, such as carbon taxes to pay for climate damage.

Who knew, apart from eggheaded economists?