1 ‘If this were the beginning of 2007, and somebody said housing prices are going to come down by 6 percent, which is the most since the Great Depression; we’re going to see S&P 500 earnings expected to be up 10 percent but end down; we’re going to see oil prices up 60 percent; and we’re going to have a major financial crisis start in August, I would have said, bear market, here we come.’ — Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for Standard & Poor’s
2 ‘The brands that sell to the affluent will be more challenged in 2008.’ — Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury Institute
3 ‘There is a point where high oil prices start to significantly impact the economy. The challenge is that nobody knows where that point is.’ — Pavel Molchanov, an energy analyst for Raymond James and Associates
4 ‘We can look forward to this happening even more in 2008 because the air-traffic-control system is collapsing.’ — Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd Group market-research firm, on flight cancellations
5 ‘If layoffs start to surge, you’re going to see long-term unemployment increasing fast.’ — Andrew Stettner, interim executive director of the National Employment Law Project
