Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for appearing.
There's been much talk about not necessarily the entry but the legislation and the encouragement of the private sector. The argument goes, I suppose, that the public institutions....
And you've done an excellent job, Ms. Kinsley. I think we have a generation of success, maybe with some glitches. But the argument is that the public sector does a better job at guaranteeing the market.
I'm going to direct this question to Mr. Poschmann. The way I understand it, if we take the United States with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, weren't those two public institutions largely responsible for much of the turmoil that happened in the States? Do I understand this correctly in suggesting that much of the downturn and the havoc created in the States was as a result of government policy that didn't necessarily encourage good behaviour in lending practices? Am I right?
Perhaps you could expound on that.