Loose cannons

None

"I guess there are very few new ideas in journalism." — Sydney Sun-Herald editor Alan Revell after his paper and the Sunday Telegraph both front-paged an "exclusive" beat-up claiming there is widespread issuing of fraudulent medical certificates for "sickies".

Enough said

"Politically dangerous." — Gareth Evans at the ALP conference, on a resolution which suggested that a wealth tax might not be the work of the devil.

Any more?

"Right and Left [ALP] faction fights don't mean much any more." — Graham Richardson, former Labor right numbers man, in the Bulletin.

Retrospect is a suburb of Washington

"In retrospect, it is clear that more investment monies flowed into these ['tiger'] economies than could be profitably employed at reasonable risk." — Alan Greenspan, chair of the US Federal Reserve.

More retrospect

"One has to say on the side of the banks that there has been some lack of prudence." — Georges Blum, chair of the Swiss Back Corporation and of the Institute of International Finance, on excessive lending to the Asian economies now in crisis.

Reassuring

"In effect, I want to do for the welfare state what I did for Clause 4." — British PM Tony Blair, who removed Clause 4, calling for "common ownership" of industry, from the Labour Party's constitution.

Not playing

"The playing field can't be level. One side has the gun." — An academic at the National University of Singapore on joint ventures with the Indonesian military, which is widely involved in business.

From GLW issue 304