Voices

“God forbid we create more jobs!”

--James Bianco, principal at bond firm Arbor Trading Group

*

“Today they had to cancel the recession.”

--Alfred Kugel, investment strategist at Stein, Roe & Farnham

*

“It’s taking on biblical proportions.”

--Matthew Hand, Bond trader at UBS Securities in New York, referring to bonds’ sell-off

*

“You can say we’re a bunch of hysterical manic-depressives.”

--Hugh Johnson, Chief investment officer at First Albany Corp., describing Wall Street traders

*

“If you look at the actual level of the stock market, it’s not exactly that depressed. Let’s have a little sense of perspective here.”

--Richard Hoey, Chief economist, Dreyfus Corp.

*

“There was a lot of cautious money on the sideline that really wanted to buy in and had been waiting for a sell-off.”

--Randy Kirk, Los Angeles branch manager, Charles Schwab & Co.

*

“It was rather exciting this morning.”

Anne-Drue Anderson, Treasurer at Home Savings of America. Her job is to protect the thrift from being battered by volatile stock and bond markets.

*

“We could be seeing a possible stagflation scenario.”

--Robert Heady, Publisher of Bank Rate Monitor, referring to the low-growth, high-inflation phenomenon that bedeviled the U.S. economy in the late 1970s

*

“It’s hard to see where basically anything has changed. . . . We haven’t seen a lot of selling.”

--Joan Payden, President at Los Angeles fixed-income investment firm Payden & Rygel

*

“The employment report blew everyone away. It’s changed the perception of Fed policy--now no one believes the Fed will ease at the end of March. And it changes the perception that the economy is weak as well.”

--David Shulman, Chief equity strategist at Salomon Bros.