Henry Paulson Environment Quotations

Looking ahead, while we remain cautious about the near-term operating environment, we are confident in the strength of our franchise and the firm's longer-term growth prospects,

Weakness in the capital markets, compounded by an erosion of corporate and investor confidence, has depressed activity in a number of our most important businesses, ... While we have seen some encouraging economic data of late, the current environment remains very challenging.

As a public company, Goldman Sachs will have the financial strength and strategic flexibility to continue to serve our clients effectively as well as to respond thoughtfully to the business and competitive environment over the long term.

I think all of us know that what we went through in the last half of the Nineties is not sustainable. We're going to need to adjust ourselves to a period of more normal growth. How we think about managing our businesses in that environment is the tricky question we're all grappling with.

We are very confident about the long-term outlook for our business, but believe that the immediate impact will be a further weakening in the operating environment and a delay in the economic recovery, ... However, given increased fiscal and monetary stimulus, we anticipate that long-term economic recovery should be more certain and vigorous than previously expected.