• Los Angeles Times Money & Co. blog, Friday, January 2, 2009 10 AM

Tom Petruno's illuminating collection of dimwitted remarks and downright obfuscations will leave you yearning for some good, old-fashioned marketing speak.

Take Goldman Sach's chairman Lloyd Blankfein talking about the credit crisis. "We're closer to the end than the beginning," he said. "I think we're getting to that point where people are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel." Later, he said: "Maybe we're at the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth quarter. If you watch sports, sometimes there's a lot of timeouts in the fourth quarter. It takes longer to play than any of the other quarters, and sometimes it ends in a tie and goes into overtime."

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