Quotes of the day

We find a strong link between Congressional activity and stock market returns that persists even after controlling for known daily return anomalies. Stock returns are lower and volatility is higher when Congress is in session. This Congressional Effect can be quite large - more than 90% of the capital gains over the life of the DJIA have come on days when Congress is out of session.--Michael Ferguson and Hugh Witte

There are two guys out on a life raft and they drift out to sea. They're surrounded by sharks, there's a huge tidal wave, and one guy says he's scared, and the other guy sells him a policy. That's a credit default swap. Stop laughing, it's not funny. We're crying.--Rep. Gary Ackerman

While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. The provision, now called “the Dodd Amendment” by the Obama Administration provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” -- which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax.--Rich Edson

Before you throw “Spygate” at me, let’s be honest. Every team in the league does it. I played on teams that had a guy go through the visiting team’s hotel after they checked out to look for any type of game plan material that was “mistakenly” left behind. So please, don’t go there.--Matt Bowen