Reasonable

“It is reasonable to ask whether the people of Iraq will notice any change.” – US Congressman Dennis Kucinich on President Obama’s pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq but leave thousands of armed contractors and State Department employees.

Helping

“We’re helping people manage money that aren’t good at doing it on their own.” – The owner of a chain of used-car lots in the US, quoted in the October 30 Los Angeles Times justifying hassling poor buyers for their monthly payments.

Progress

“It will last three months, then we’ll have elections, and then we’ll have the same problems all over again.” – Athanassios Papandropoulos, a commentator for a conservative Greek newspaper, on the likely outcome of Greece’s “unity” government.

But still as pro-capitalist as ever

“We are a small party getting smaller, we are an old party getting older.” – Senator John Faulkner, a leader of the ALP “Left” faction.

Higher maths

“Asia’s economic transformation will be dominated by a group of countries dubbed the ‘Asia-7’, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.” – Economics writer Matt Wade in the November 12 Sydney Morning Herald.

Wonder why

“... the police actions of last week have been more hostile to the press than any other event in recent memory.” – A complaint, signed by 13 news organisations, regarding police attempts to suppress coverage of the eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park.

The nature of things

“When you have a great deal of market power in the hands of one or two retailers, you will have abuses of power. That’s in the nature of things.” – British retail expert David Hughes on the Australian food retailing industry, dominated by Coles and Woolworths.