Quotable - Paul Wellstone

The American polity is infected with a serious imbalance of power between elites and masses, a power which is the principal threat to our democracy.

Paul Wellstone
former U.S. senator, Minnesota

 

Quotable-Neil Barofsky

"My view of financial institutions is colored by my years as a prosecutor...None of this surprises me. They are profit-driven corporations that seek to maximize profitability without much regard to social gain."

Neil Barofsky
former inspector general, TARP

 

Quotable-Finley Peter Dunne

"High finance isn't burglary or obtaining money by false pretenses, but rather a judicious selection from the best features of those fine arts."

Finley Peter Dunne, Chicago author, 1867-1936


Quotable: Martha Roper

"One of the biggest concerns about this (financial reform) legislation, which we support, it relies on its success on regulators to do, effectively, what they did very poorly in the run up to this crisis."

Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America

Quotable: The Marx Brothers

"You can have any kind of home you want. You can even get stucco. Oh, how you can get stucco."

The Marx Brothers

`Cocoanuts,' 1929

Quotable: Sen. Carl Levin

"The recent financial crisis was not a natural disaster; it was a man-made economic assault...People did it. Extreme greed was the driving force. And it will happen again unless we change the rules."

Sen. Carl Levin

Quotable: Neil Barofsky

"Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car."

Neil Barofsky, January 2010