combined to spoil what could have been a very good quarter.

This was a great quarter. By any measure, we hit our stride and demonstrated what the merger was all about.

I'm "very disappointed that we missed our (earnings per share) growth target this quarter due to the confluence of a number of issues that we now understand and are urgently addressing. I accept full responsibility for the shortfall.

I think 4 percent growth is a good goal. And I think the fact that we have become used to an economy that sort of putt putts along between 1 and 2 percent is sort of tragic.

Russia - having sat across the table from Vladimir Putin, it's pretty clear when you meet him that he has an almost limitless ambition for power. And he's been very good at acquiring it - political power, economic power, military power, territorial power.

I started out typing and filing and answering the phones for a little nine-person firm. And that nine-person firm gave me my chance to find my own way.