This paper presents a contrastive study on how the British, Spanish and French press conceptualised the economic crisis that affected economy worldwide in 2008. Data show that journalists rely heavily on metaphorical imagery to describe it, and these metaphors not only influence the reader’s view of the crisis, but also contribute to create a negative view of the phenomenon by highlighting its most harmful effects on people’s life. Frequent conceptual metaphors outlined are the crisis as a living organism, a disease, natural disaster, a weather phenomenon and a harmful object, but similarities and differences across languages are also examined.