(FORTUNE Magazine) – -- MARGARITA SWEENEY, 45, newly laid-off chief underwriter of a Minneapolis mortgage-banking company: ''I was surprised when I went to the unemployment office and didn't see any blue-collar workers there. Everyone was white-collar.''

-- SKIP ROBERTS, 45, an official of the Democratic Socialists of America, explaining that progressive politics may be due for a comeback: ''We have to look at not just how to distribute wealth but how to create it. Call it Silicon Valley socialism.''

-- DONALD T. REGAN, 71, former Treasury Secretary, in response to a suggestion at a House Banking Committee hearing that he helped father the savings and loan crisis: ''I want a blood test.''