They called it “transitory.”
We kept score.
The Euphemism Index measures how far official language drifts from economic reality. Because institutions lie slowly in vocabulary before they lie quickly in numbers.
Since “transitory” (March 2021): $1.00 → $0.79 of purchasing power. The euphemism outlasted your savings.
CURRENT STATUS: SUSPICIOUS
We now track 17 institutions — governments, central banks, and the corporations that lied hardest right before they collapsed. Most are in the 50–66 range today: not actively lying, just speaking a dialect where every sentence has three escape hatches and nothing means anything until it does.
THE INDEX
The Ministry of
Soft Language
Euphemism Distance Score for the institutions with an ongoing track record, 2018–present. When the line goes up, the language is getting softer while reality gets harder. (Tap a badge to isolate one. One-off corporate implosions live in the Hall of Shame below.)
HALL OF SHAME
The Greatest Hits of
Institutional Denial
Every statement scored. Every euphemism highlighted. Every denial documented for posterity.
LIVE SCANNER
Paste. Score.
Judge.
Got an official statement that smells like euphemism? Paste it below. Our decoder will score it, highlight the soft language, and deliver a verdict with the appropriate level of sarcasm.
Note: this offline edition scores locally against our euphemism lexicon — no server required.
OR TRY A SAMPLE:
DECODER RING
The Rosetta Stone of
Institutional Language
A handy translation guide for when officials open their mouths. What they said on the left. What they meant on the right.
LEADERBOARD
The Olympians of
Obfuscation
All 16 institutions we track, ranked by how euphemistic they've been over the years — biggest liars up top. Spoiler: nobody wins. Especially not the public.
METHODOLOGY
How the
Sausage Gets Made
Full transparency. We show our work. Every data point is real and citable. The snark is the wrapper. The substance is the point.
The Underlying Reality
CPI inflation rates that institutions were commenting on. Source: FRED, Eurostat, ONS.
PEAK US CPI
9.1%
June 2022
PEAK EU HICP
10.6%
Oct 2022
PEAK UK CPI
11.1%
Oct 2022
⚠️ DISCLAIMER: The Euphemism Distance Index is a satirical data journalism project. All economic data is sourced from public records (FRED, Eurostat, ONS). All official statements are from publicly available transcripts, press conferences, and policy reports. The euphemism scoring model analyzes language patterns. It is opinionated by design. If you are a central banker reading this: we see you. You know what you did.