I think, given that at the time the credit and financial markets generally were seizing up, at the beginning of the pandemic, getting out there and expanding the balance sheet, along with a lot of other central banks around the world, helped keep financial markets functioning. In the acute phase, if you like, of the pandemic, when there was a great deal of uncertainty, that was a fairly reasonable and rational response that worked in the financial crisis back in 2008-09 and certainly helped to unlock the financial markets when the pandemic first set in.
The question going forward is really one of.... We're through the worst of it. There is more certainty as to how the world is unfolding, so the question is how you taper down and return the balance sheet to a more normal level. I think that going forward as they're dealing with the inflation pressures, yes, there will be interest rate hikes to come, as the governor has highlighted, but the other key of the equation is at what pace they will return some of those securities back into the marketplace and how they can do that in a way that doesn't unduly disrupt the marketplace.