Wall Street Journal reporters Aaron Lucchetti and Matthew Karnitschnig: "From 2002 to 2008, the five biggest Wall Street securities firms paid an estimated $190 billion in bonuses. Those companies churned out $76 billion in combined profits during the same period. Last year, the companies had a combined net loss of $25.3 billion, yet paid bonuses of roughly $26 billion."

John Tamny, editor of RealClearMarkets: "Going forward, readers should expect lots of strident commentary about how Wall Street has failed Main Street. At the least, they should know that an unstable dollar, not the actions of 'greedy' bankers, explains the various investment mistakes that regularly harm companies and the good name of capitalism itself."

Chicago Tribune chairman Sam Zell, on why he didn't explore bankruptcy for his company well before his December filing: "There's this guy who was just elected president of the United States, and he wrote a book called 'The Audacity of Hope.'"

William and Mary's president Taylor Reveley, on how his college 'is doing as the world moves through chaotic and unpredictable economic times': "No other college or university in America has had to overcome more adversity than William and Mary, including being caught in the paths of two wars. Along the way, the college has developed great staying power. We will be fine."

Peter Ferrara, who served in the Reagan White House's Office of Policy Development - now director of entitlement and budget policy at the Institute for Policy Innovation: "(Ronald Reagan's economic policies worked) because they turned around in just two years an economy far worse than today's. We were suffering from multi-year double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment, double-digit interest rates, declining incomes, and rising poverty. In fact, what we suffer with today is not the worst economy since the Great Depression but the worst economy since Jimmy Carter - the last time liberals were dominant politically and intellectually....(Today's) stimulus plan is the greatest increase in government spending in the history of the planet. Meanwhile, the Fed is furiously reinflating, sowing more havoc down the line."

Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Weisman: "White House budget director Peter Orszag (has) revised the fiscal 2009 deficit upward by $89 billion, to $1.84 trillion, 12.9 percent of the economy. That is a level not seen since 1945. Next year's deficit forecast was raised $87 billion, to $1.26 trillion."