Stilltitled

They’re certainly not making ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.’

— Peter Guber, the chief executive of Mandalay Entertainment Group and the former head of Columbia and Sony Pictures

The relationship between e-mail activity and hierarchical level is striking; the average executive (members of the top four salary bands) in our sample sent and received more than twice as many e-mails as the average middle manager who, in turn, sent and received more than twice as many as the average rank-and-file employee. Likewise, executives communicated with many more partners than middle managers or rank-and-file employees and their e-mails were substantially more dispersed across business unit, function, and office boundaries.

—HBS Paper on Communication & Coordination

And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast -Man’s laws, not God’s- and if you cut them down -and you’re just the man to do it- do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? …Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.

—A Man for All Seasons, Robert Bolt

Representative John Dingell says tightening fuel efficiency rules unfairly penalizes domestic carmakers and rewards foreign rivals that make small cars.

“The American auto industry has sold the cars people wanted. You’re going to blame the auto industry for that or the American consumer? He likes it sitting in his driveway, he likes it big, he likes it safe.” –John Dingell

And when the exceptionally low price of oil suddenly shifts, as it has now, those manufacturers whose market is predicated on that exception find their products no longer appealing and their business seemingly no longer viable.

Bank of America to Cut 7,500 Jobs After Purchase of Countrywide Financial

90,000+ Jobs cut

Most investors are going to sit on the sidelines until they’re more certain the sharks have left the waters and it’s safe to go back in. The write-offs have been far worse than anyone would have imagined.

—Bruce McCain, the Cleveland-based head of investment strategy at Key Private Bank, which oversees about $30 billion.

“Monetary policy makers around the world certainly understand what they are doing much better than they did in the early 1970s. I’m sure that policy makers will not allow inflation to rise any more and they’ll bring it back down.”

—Steve Cecchetti, Brandeis

Investment banks and securities firms in the past 10 months have cut 83,000 jobs amid losses and writedowns of $383 billion.