Quotes

From the April 2009 issue

“In capitalism of the 21st century, there is room for the state.”

—French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called market capitalism “an immoral system” at the New World, New Capitalism symposium in Paris, January 8.

“Politicians spent taxpayer money without wisdom or discipline, and too often focused on scoring political points instead of the problems they were sent here to solve.”

—President Barack Obama, in a speech defending $750 billion in “stimulus” spending, January 8

“We’re going to expropriate that and turn it into a hospital, I don’t know, a school, a university.”

—Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, explaining his decision to seize a shopping mall, speaking on his weekly show Hello, President, December 21

“Going into a shop and buying a fur coat would be an act of weakness. But if I could go into the woods and kill a bear myself, I would wear it proudly as a trophy.”

—TV cook Nigella Lawson on whether to outlaw fur, interviewed by the BBC, December 10