Good-bye, and good pot

“It's not based on any particular data point. We just wanted to choose a really large number.”“We need to stop the tide of history from engulfng us.”How the US Treasury decided it needed $700 billion to rescue the US fnancial system, as told to Forbes.com.A scribbled note left on a table by one delegate at the PREA annual conference in Chicago.“How deep does the fnancial pain go? I don't think you can compare this to anything else we've seen. We are in a cash market and cash is king.”“People are so nervous to be frst and use whatever cash they have because they can't get any again. [GPs] don't want to look stupid [by being too early].”Dunmore Capital founder Sid Dunmore speaking to PERE about heavily-discounted land investments in California.Jeffrey Horowitz, Merrill Lynch's head of global real estate banking, at the annual PREA conference in Chicago.“Blackstone bought Equity Ofce Properties from me for $39 billion and put up $3 billion in total equity. That's pretty absurd.”“You will make more money while everyone is sitting on the sidelines than when everyone is chasing real estate.”Equity International co-founder Sam Zell assess last year's blockbuster deal at the DLA Piper Global Real Estate Summit in Chicago.Kevin Lynch, co-founder of The Townsend Group, speaking about opportunities at the Expo Real conference in Munich.“China still tends to be the best sandbox in the world to play in.”“In about five years' time, people will look back on 2008 and 2009 and think, ‘Gee, that was a buying opportunity. Why didn't I do more?’”Robert Welanetz, global retail head for The Blackstone Group, referring to investment opportunities in China in a Reuters interview.David Edwards, Asia director for LaSalle Investment Management, told Reuters.