Quotes of the day

My stake in the [apartment I co-own with my ex-girlfriend] is essentially a free call option. My renters’ payments cover the mortgage payments, and the asset has already lost its value. Upside awaits. What I didn’t take into account were the externalities: an indignant fiancée, a difficult ex and an illiquid market. My biggest regret is not securitising those risks, representing them as assets and selling them to the major US banks.--Mary's fiance, updating Dear Economist

I don’t think the Obama Administration took over GM. I think GM took over the Obama Administration.--Glenn Reynolds

My new home will have solar power. It was a city requirement. I plan to brag about it to people who are passionate about the environment and bad at math.--Scott Adams

[George Bush and Dick Cheny] maintain respectful ties, speaking on the telephone now and then, though aides to both said they were never quite friends. But there is a sting in Cheney's critique, because he views concessions to public sentiment as moral weakness. After years of praising Bush as a man of resolve, Cheney now intimates that the former president turned out to be more like an ordinary politician in the end. --Barton Gellman

Ever find yourself sitting down at the computer just for a second to find out what other movie you saw that actress in, only to look up and realize the search has led to an hour of Googling? Thank dopamine. Our internal sense of time is believed to be controlled by the dopamine system. People with hyperactivity disorder have a shortage of dopamine in their brains, which a recent study suggests may be at the root of the problem. For them even small stretches of time seem to drag.--Emily Yoffee