"I don’t think it’s a Great Depression, I don’t think it’s Armageddon but I think that it’s purely wishful thinking for people to be forecasting a sharp V-shaped recovery in the second half of the year"
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross reckons the financial crisis is far from over. See Wilbur Ross builds from the bottom up
"Mezz is a risky product and it is priced accordingly. No one is yet going out there and undercutting but there is a chance this could happen. If someone wants to go ahead and use mezz as a loss leader, be my guest – but I am not going to do it"
James Stirling, director in growth and acquisition finance at Investec. See Mezzanine financing: Another fine mezz
"Obviously, we understand that most banks are having to recapitalize but to the extent that those recapitalization needs are being transferred to the underwriting capacity of those banks, there is clear differentiation"
Barbara Bargagli-Petrucci, head of capital markets at the European Investment Bank. See Separating the wheat from the chaff in debt services
"[Silence]"
Citi and Bank of America had a common response to Euromoney’s repeated enquiries into what progress they had made towards their headline-grabbing announcements last year to invest $50 billion and $20 billion respectively in green projects. It would seem the credit crisis has forced grandstanding on the environment down the agenda
"You need the best analysis possible to understand what you’re buying. That or a large pair of balls"
One US fund manager ponders whether or not to buy real estate assets. See US real estate: Which floor has the door to US homes?