Key quotes from Milken conference in Beverly Hills
BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) - The 2009 Milken Institute Global Conference attracted business leaders and politicians to discuss the global economic crisis and other pressing issues.
The conference ran from Monday to Wednesday. Here are some notable quotes from the annual gathering at the Beverly Hilton during its third day on Wednesday:
-- GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS AND INVESTMENT CLIMATE
DAVID NASON, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY:
"The sheer time it took Bear Stearns to go from viable to nonviable was breathtaking."
"We were very distressed to know that there were no takers" for Lehman Brothers.
"You couldn't think of the long view, you were just managing the fires." (Speaking of the financial crisis when the U.S. government stepped in to save AIG, let Lehman go, and try to solve the crisis with the TARP.
"We were worried about every bank of size," in response to whether the Treasury was concerned about other possible failures.
KEVIN FROMER, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY:
"The new folks in our seats now have the benefit of looking back and spending more time with Congress. They are benefiting from our experience. These (rescue plans) are very difficult for smart people to engineer."
"It is not conceivable to me that there will be a TARP II with people going back to Congress to ask for more money."
SEAN CLEARY, CHAIRMAN, STRATEGIC CONCEPTS LTD:
"U.S. households added more mortgage debt in the last six years than in the prior life of the mortgage market."
REBECCA PATTERSON, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND GLOBAL HEAD OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE AND COMMODITIES, J.P. MORGAN WEALTH MANAGEMENT:
"The market is still on pins and needles. It wouldn't take a lot right now to tip us back into a weaker place."
DAVID SOLOMON, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CO-HEAD OF THE INVESTMENT BANKING DIVISION, GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO:
"I would probably buy the U.S. short term, but I am a big long term China bull and there is no question that growth out of emerging markets will be very important to our economy."
MEREDITH WHITNEY, MEREDITH WHITNEY ADVISORS:
"I'm not so much worried about inflation. The stimulus is going into black holes and I don't see where the inflation could come from."
-- OIL PRICES, OIL SUPPLY AND DEMAND
MIKKAL HERBERG, BP FOUNDATION RESEARCH FELLOW AT PACIFIC COUNCIL ON INTERNATIONAL POLICY
"It's a perverse relationship. The higher prices go, the resource-holding countries say 'we don't need the investment and we'll just sit on it because we're earning plenty of revenue without having to invest in new production.' "
Herberg noted that in developed nations, generally, the higher the oil price the more money is made available to spend on exploring for more oil.
AMORY LOVINS, CO-FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF SCIENTIST, ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE:
"ANWR oil is insecure, unimportant, unprofitable and uneconomical. Even at high oil prices, it doesn't make sense. The cost went up faster than the price did."
ANWR is Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. There is an ongoing national debate whether to allow drilling for oil and natural gas there.
"I love having lower oil prices because it takes Putin, Ahmadinejad and Chavez off our payroll."
Lovins referred to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Russia, Iran and Venezuela are among the world's leading oil exporting nations.
ANTOINE HALFF, DEPUTY HEAD OF RESEARCH, ENERGY FUNDAMENTALS AT NEWEDGE GROUP:
"The U.S. oil demand may very well have peaked in 2007. It may not rise above that. Post-recession, you might see some changes in energy efficiency and in using new technologies. Demand will not be the same when we turn the corner on this (economic) crisis."
-- ODDS AND ENDS
SUMNER REDSTONE, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, CBS CORP:
"I am not going anywhere. People at Viacom call it the curious case of Sumner Redstone. I'm getting younger."
Redstone, 85, attributed his good health to antioxidants, exercise and a daily shot of vodka.
ROY DOUMANI, FOUNDER OF CALIFORNIA NANOSYSTEMS INSTITUTE, UCLA:
"What we need is to look at agricultural, and look at a more efficient way of doing that. The largest cash crop, I'm told, is marijuana. And those folks really have their act down. They utilize the water, and they utilize hydroponics, and they utilize this stuff better than anybody does. So we can learn a great deal from them. There is talk about taxing them, legalizing them. But the asset they have is they have developed growing the most efficient way that anybody has."
Doumani referred to the need for farmers to use less water.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Jui Chakravorty, Nichola Groom, Sue Zeidler and Bernie Woodall; Editing by Bernie Woodall, Bernard Orr, Richard Chang)
