Not maliciously, I might add.
There is an element of humour in this meeting, because the government was pushing for you gentlemen to be included in the same session as the Parliamentary Budget Officer, on the assumption that you would offer a measure of protection for the government from his projections. But I believe—and this is a question for Mr. Drummond—that whereas the Parliamentary Budget Officer projected a two-year deficit of $73 billion, or $9 billion higher than the government's projection, TD Bank is projecting $82 billion, or $18 billion higher than the government.
I'd also ask you to confirm whether it's correct, based on my look at the charts, and partly on consensus projections—and maybe some personal input from the Parliamentary Budget Officer—that real GDP will fall by about 2% in the year 2009, and nominal GDP by about 4%, with the unemployment rate averaging about 8.4%. This is what the Parliamentary Budget Officer is projecting.
So am I right in thinking that on all four counts the TD forecast is more pessimistic?