Thank you very much.
Dr. Mintz, the government seems to think, and so does the Bank of Canada, that we don't need to worry about the monstrous debts that the public and private sectors are building up. We now have the highest debt-to-GDP ratio by far in the G7, with the exception of Japan, at 384% debt-to-GDP ratio of public and private combined. This is far and away the biggest we've ever faced in Canada.
The bank and the government say, don't worry, interest rates are low and they won't go up until the economy improves. However, you know better than anyone that rates skyrocketed in the late 1970s from 8% to 22%, even though we had a miserably poor economy—bad growth, high unemployment. Interest rates rose to contain out-of-control inflation.
You've pointed out that we have a supply shock and that supply shock puts upward pressure on prices. Do you think there's a chance that we could be surprised by inflation in the medium term and that interest rates may rise more quickly than any of the decision-makers in the government tell us?