Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank all the witnesses for being here today.
I'd like to direct my questions to the Hon. Mr. Peters or Mr. Donner.
I was intrigued by your opening statement, when you talked about the New York Federal Reserve's paper, I believe it was. In early January 2009, the Bank of Canada released the results of two nationwide surveys that indicated businesses are finding it very difficult to obtain credit, because they're deterred by either the rising interest rates or the stringent lending terms. The same thing goes for credit for households; concern has been expressed about the reluctance of financial institutions to reduce the prime lending rates. We've been hearing that one of the ways we can get out of this recession is to spend, spend, spend, but if people aren't going to spend, and that's what this paper is talking to.... Maybe you can expand a little bit on that and talk about the paper.