Best quotes found in the mad, mad week that was

Because news doesn't wait for dead trees.
Bartholomeusz quoted on the Business Spectator online banner 7 October 2008

In wartime, truth is so precious she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

Attributed to Winston Churchill, whose dead words are still applied daily in the political and business spheres

All business proceeds on beliefs, or judgments of probabilities, and not on certainties.
William Hewlett in Quoteopia

Fortunately executives of ‘rescued’ outfits realise how important it is for them to reassure the rest of us by showing us that life goes on and we should continue to lead it (as best we can in our newly straightened circumstances) as usual.

Nicholas Gruen writing in Club Troppo, about the fact that a week after government 'bailed-out' failed insurance giant AIG its executives splurged on seven days of $440,000 worth of sybaritic pleasure.

The Budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Bruce Whitney quoting Cicero in The Daily Examiner letters to the editor column 9 October 2008, thereby reminding us that the more things change......

"I know Mr Turnbull thinks that the whole world revolves around his ego," Swan said before jetting off to the IMF meeting in the United States. "But there are some events in the world which are much bigger than Mr Turnbull’s ego."
Well, that’s not literally true about the Zaphod Beeblebrox of Australian politics, but it’s a good line.

Bernard Keene writing in Crikey about the Leader of the Opposition's boast that he personally has the Australian banks on the run.

But the IMF doesn't have a network of purpose-built Australian spies to feed its impressions of the Australian economy. Its World Economic Outlook report is written using information obtained from member state economies themselves; from the Commonwealth Treasury, in our case.
So in effect, when Kevin Rudd quotes from the IMF, he is quoting himself; at the very least, he is quoting Wayne Swan.

Anabelle Crabb writing in The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday takes a jaundiced view of the Prime Minister's assurances concerning the stability of Australia's economy and financial institutions.