I think this year you’re going to have six years’ worth of movement in the commodities markets,” said Mark Fisher of hedge fund MBF Clearing Corp.

“My heart sank when I heard the corn number. I literally felt sick to my stomach. I just knew that most of the market was looking for a big rally in corn and had positioned themselves that way,” said Scott Shellady, a trader at ICAP US Derivatives.

“Our medical technology has completely outstripped our ability to pay for it,” said Boris Schlossberg, a foreign currency strategist at BK Forex Advisors.

“2012 will be the third year of living dangerously,” said Ed Yardeni of Yardeni  Research.

“Housing in terms of price has put in a real bottom. I’m not looking for a housing bull market. We are in the second phase of a housing bear market. But the good news is that we can correct the rest of the way back to the long term trend through time, rather than price [...]

“I looked all over the basement when I was at the White House, and there is no big lever you can throw to make things good again,” said Austin Goolsby, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors.  

“China is not going to have a hard or soft landing. It is going to keep on flying. There is a tremendous amount of momentum in the Chinese economy. There’s a lot to be done in terms of infrastructure. At the low end there is a lot to be done in housing. And it now [...]

“All of Germany is a Tea Party, and that is going to be a problem for the Euro, said Yra Harris of Praxis Trading.

“The days of leading companies or countries via a one-way conversation are over. The old system of ‘command and control’ – using carrots and sticks –to exert power over people is fast being replaced by ‘connect and collaborate’,” said author Dov Siedman.

In Despicable Me, the latest animated children’s’ film from 20th Century Fox, the Bank of Evil, used to finance the nefarious deeds of villains, has listed under its name “formerly known as Lehman Brothers.”

“If You’ve lived long enough on Wall Street, you know that we shoot our wounded and eat our young,” said Brad Hintz, an analyst with Sandford Bernstein.

“At some point in 2012, knuckles are going to be turning white, and we’ll see whatever rabbits Ben Bernanke is going to have to pull out of his hat,” said David Rosenberg of Gluskin, Sheff in Associates

We have been pretending that we’re too big to fail. We’re not too big to fail, You can jump off of a 90 story building and feel fine for the first 89 stories. It’s the sudden stop at the end that tells you you’re not.” said Tom Friedman, New York Times columnist and author of [...]

“To get rich is glorious!” said Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese general who launched the country’s modern economy in the seventies.

“This isn’t a choice between vanilla and chocolate folks, it’s all rocky road: a few marshmallows to get you excited before the elections, but with a lot of nuts to ruin the aftermath,” said the ever insightful, Bill Gross, at PIMCO.