Yes. As an economist, these results certainly surprise me. I have some theories for why it's happened, but it's interesting that when I've been on sessions with people from the Canadian manufacturers association, they generally don't support further corporate income tax cuts. What they have supported, and I think a number of us here have as well, are investment tax credits, because then not just the profitable corporations can benefit from those, but also companies who are going to invest in the economy in that way. That's what we really need in Canada.
I think you'd agree that the whole austerity agenda has been misguided. I think we've seen that six months after the spring budgets. I think the overriding concern that a lot of people have had is not so much the immediate deficits that we have now, but the deficits into the future and the potential cost of aging, because obviously when you are preparing an annual budget you are looking into the future as well. Even the IMF has done some calculations, and the cost of that aging for the pension systems and also for health care is not an enormous amount in comparison with the reduction we've had in terms of overall revenues.
The real economic problem that we have now isn't so much saving so that we can invest in the economy. Corporations now have a big surplus of savings, and they're driving that back into share buy-backs that help pump up their stock prices but don't do anything in terms of investment. The real problem we have is a lack of spending by individuals. That is why you need to support the vulnerable, help create jobs, and keep the economy going that way. There's been an incredible imbalance that's developed.