Not so happy new year

The recession, or depression as GB reminds us, has been affecting Chinese New Year (year of the Ox aka castrated bull) celebrations. Traditional greetings such as "Caiyuan gungun", or "May prosperity come rolling to you", and "Xinxiang shicheng", "May you achieve all your desires" are out of favour as the former sounds exactly the same as the phrase meaning "laid off and discarded" while the latter sounds very like the Mandarin for "40% pay cut."