Quotes of the day

It's not enough ...--Matt Cassel, on his 3 touchdown, 0 interception, 400 passing yard, and 62 rushing yard performance

Matt Cassel played a helluva game. I don't think you can make a throw any better than the one he made at the end.--Brett Favre

I know lots of academics don't like [Malcolm Gladwell] because he takes other people's ideas and makes a lot of money popularizing them. But he hasn't taken any of my ideas, so I don't hate him.--Tom Smith

You cannot help but laugh when you hear that GM is the world's leading purchaser of Viagra. The Detroit News reported in 2006 that GM spent $17 million dollars on the 'little blue pill'. Admittedly, this is a relatively small portion of the more than $5.6 billion per year that GM spends on health care for their employees... but the Viagra problem is a symptom of an overall cost management illness.--Ockham Research

I don't know about you, but I have totally stopped worrying about terrorist attacks. Now I'm only afraid of bankers with new ideas.--Scott Adams

In my view, the crisis has many causes: The regulators who took a hands-off position on investment bank leverage and credit default swaps; everyone along the mortgage-backed securities chain who should have blown a whistle rather than passing the problem on; and, in my opinion the most culpable, the rating agencies, which allowed sows’ ears to be sold as silk purses.--James Simons

In my view, hedge funds were not a major contributor to the recent crisis. Generally, hedge funds have increased liquidity and reduced volatility in the markets. Moreover, because of their remarkably diverse strategies, hedge funds, as a class, are unlikely to create systemic risk. Hedge funds do use leverage, but each hedge fund’s leverage is stringently controlled by its lenders – far more so than is true for investment banks.--James Simons

I see thousands and thousands of jobs at Canary Wharf and in downtown London, jobs that should have been in America in financial services.--Ken Griffin

The revenues we receive from foreign investors allow us to contribute to the U.S. economy like an exporter of goods, bringing in money from abroad.--John Paulson

We share profits with our investors on an 80/20 basis where 80% of the profits go to the investors and 20% remains with us. We only earn performance allocations if our investors are profitable. All of our funds have a “high water mark,” which means that if we lose money for our investors, we have to earn it back before we share in future profits. Some of our funds also have a “claw back” provision, requiring us to return profits earned in prior periods if we lose money in subsequent periods. In addition, we invest our own money alongside that of our clients, so we share investment losses along with gains.--John Paulson

It’s like there’s something about Palin that makes reporters just lose any sense at all when covering her.--Mollie Zeigler

A short while ago, I had planned a post on Ms. Gorelick, which I never got around to publishing, entitled "The Most Incompetent Person in Washington." And that is saying something. ... A women connected with both the failure to stop 9/11 and the Fannie/Freddie crisis. And that is not all. She is willing to sit on the 9/11 commission reviewing her own behavior, and represents Duke concerning the rape hoax. By all means, appoint her.--Mike Rappaport

My guess is that your wife and children have decided that it suits them to maintain your delusions of control.--Tim Harford

Why the Wii? Hardcore gamers probably still prefer one of the two other systems, which offer better graphics, but the Wii lends itself to casual players who otherwise might not own a game console at all -- a huge market.--Eric Krangel