business journalists have a habit of complaining to one another that corporate executives, and the people in their immediate orbit, make for painful interviews: executives admit little that hasn’t been approved by a troop of lawyers and public-relations minders, they speak in business jargon, and their solicitousness grates. Those who buck that trend include this year’s most-quoted businessman, Donald Trump. From him and nine others—some who wield corporate power, others who have observed it—here are ten of this year’s most memorable quotes about business and the economy, presented in chronological order.
“It’s not funny, Mr. Shkreli.”
—Representative Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, addressingMartin Shkreli, the former C.E.O. of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Shkreli had been asked to testify before Congress about his decision to dramatically increase the price of an H.I.V. drug that Turing had acquired. Instead, he invoked the Fifth Amendment and, at times, seemed to smirk.
“We didn’t lie.”
—Matthias Müller, the C.E.O. of Volkswagen, to NPR, when asked about a project at the company to use software to cheat U.S. emissions tests. The comments outraged people—the company clearly had lied—and compelled Volkswagen to ask NPR to give Müller a do-over, in which he struck a humbler tone.Marissa Mayer, in a Tumblr post, after Verizon agreed to acquire Yahoo following months of speculation about the fate of the beleaguered Internet company that Mayer had failed to turn around after becoming its C.E.O., in 2012. Since the acquisition was announced, Yahoo has revealed that more than a billion user accounts were hacked in 2013 and 2014.That makes me smart.”
—Donald Trump at a Presidential debate, responding to Hillary Clinton’s claim that for many years he may not have paid federal income tax.
“Are you prepared to die? If that’s O.K., then you’re a candidate for going.”
—Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, describing the criteria for those interested in being the first humans sent to the colony he hopes to establish on Mars.
“Whereas, Oklahoma is blessed with an abundance of oil and natural gas, allowing the state to be a prosperous producer of these valuable resources; and whereas, Christians acknowledge such natural resources are created by God . . . now, therefore, I, Mary Fallin, Governor, do hereby proclaim October 13, 2016, as ‘Oilfield Prayer Day’ in the state of Oklahoma.”
—Governor Mary Fallin, of Oklahoma, responding to a decline in oil prices that has battered the state’s economy.
“He has not seen my income tax returns. But I am happy to give him the facts. . . . I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944, when I was 13. (Though, being a slow starter, I owed only $7 in tax that year.)”
—The billionaire Warren Buffett, in a statement responding to Donald Trump’s claims on the campaign trail suggesting that Buffett, like Trump, has found ways to avoid paying taxes.
“I went to the bathroom and took a drink of some hand sanitizer.”
—A Wells Fargo employee, quoted in the Times, describing a tactic she used to alleviate her stress over being instructed to mislead customers. The Wells Fargo scandal, which involved employees setting up unauthorized accounts that customers hadn’t asked for, ultimately cost the company’s C.E.O., John Stumpf, his job.
“Elizabeth Holmes is a great example of maybe why the women are so frustrated. She is a woman entrepreneur who built a fabulous company, did great things for consumers, and she got attacked.”
—Tim Draper, a venture capitalist, on the public response to reports of widespread fraud at the blood-testing startup Theranos, which Holmes founded, in her early twenties, after dropping out of Stanford. Theranos was the subject of a damning Wall Street Journal investigation and faces multiple lawsuits from users.
“He lied his ass off.”
—Chuck Jones, the president of United Steelworkers 1999, quoted in the Washington Post, describing his reaction to hearing Donald Trump bragging that he’d persuaded an Indiana plant to keep more than a thousand jobs in the state instead of exporting them abroad. Jones characterized Trump as having lied about how many jobs had been saved, which actually numbered in the hundreds
No comments:
Post a Comment