* “Ratings agencies need to be more like ‘American Idol’: providing information, but not making final judgments that drastically influence outcomes. They should be more informative and insightful, but not deterministic. They’ve become excessively powerful and create a self-fulfilling prophesy about what markets will do.”–Bart Chilton, commissioner, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
* “If we want to balance the budget over time, we are going to have to elect adults to Congress who are prepared to invest now in our country’s future and then, when the economy picks up, take the necessary steps to get spending in line with revenue. The question is whether politicians who act like adults can win elections.”–Richard Thaler, New York Times.
* “When Jesus gave his red-letter commandment — not a mere recommendation — that Christians were to ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’ who knew so many would find an apparent escape clause subliminally hidden in the passage? Or perhaps it is that since this group has been held captive by the GOP for so long, they suffer from the effects of Stockholm Syndrome, a condition of inexplicable empathy for the GOP’s ruthless position on issues of social responsibility.”–David M. Kennedy, attorney and author of “You Voted for Who? And You Call Yourself a Christian?”
* “When the construction guys take pictures, you know you’re building something amazing.”–Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward on the
construction of the $3.2 billion, 104-story, 1,776-foot One World Trade Center.
* “The news is almost enough to make you jam pruning shears into your eyeball: National courtroom gossip Nancy Grace will have her name in lights on ‘Dancing With the Stars.'”–John Kass, Chicago Tribune.
* “Companies have trimmed a lot of fat. They’re lean and mean and have tons of cash. After 2008, companies had to get their act together, and I think they have.”–Steve Athanassie, president of Trademark Capital Management in Dunedin.
* “I’m guessing we’ll make five times as much in a night as we usually do. Republicans got plenty of money. They take it all from poor people.”–Mons Venus owner Joe Redner on business prospects from the 2012 GOP Political Convention.
* “We can’t grow if we aren’t competitive, if we have a permit process that is a hindrance. We’ve got to be known as a business-friendly city.”–Mayor Bob
Buckhorn.
* “He’s not a big sounding-board guy; he’s more of a lead-by-example guy. You want to bring your young players around and have them meet him to learn how to act and be a professional.”–Bucs’ coach Raheem Morris on Lee Roy Selmon.
* “He did a lot and still had a lot to do.”–Tampa Catholic football coach Bob Henriquez on Lee Roy Selmon.
* “A visionary kind of guy whose embrace of technology, info and outside-the-box thinking has made him, for all intents and purposes, the Steve Jobs of managers.”–ESPN’s Jayson Stark on Rays’ manager Joe Maddon.