Finance committee  There was a slight increase in the money supply in the United States, but not in a way to ensure, if you like, the billion-dollar assistance that was mentioned. There is a difference between injecting capital into the economy, which for the American government means an increase

Finance committee  Sooner or later, you have to pay it back. Exactly.

Finance committee  What this exercise taught us during the 1970s and 1980s is that inflation creates very serious problems for the economy. This is not a very good way of dealing with a debt problem.

Finance committee  We have to make a decision. To us the substance is more important than the form, and we've mentioned that a number of times. Because we have a unified capital market, it's important that the rules be the same across the country, because there are sectoral differences or differenc

Finance committee  —a stated policy, in terms of the form that would take.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for that question. I would argue that the longer-term debt-to-GDP ratio, in a sense, is the responsibility of this group and your successors. But what is important is that we are going through a recession; we are going through a period when, because of fear,

Finance committee  Thank you for that question. Yes, our assets have changed considerably. For the committee I'll mention that our assets are normally about $50 billion, about $20 billion in treasury bills, $30 billion in bonds. With the last operations we've done we've increased our lending throu

Finance committee  No, we're not losing money on that. In fact, we're earning money on that part of the portfolio because the rate at which we lend to the bank is larger than the rate we would have gotten on treasury bills, and the rate the government has on treasury bills.

Finance committee  At this point, no. We're dealing with investment dealers, the primary dealers. We're dealing with the members of the payment system, the large-value transfer system--the banks and large deposit-taking financial institutions. Now, the facility that we announced last week will be

Finance committee  The term PRAs were done with the primary dealers only before, and now they're done with every member of the large-value transfer system. So that's a key point, in terms of extension.

Finance committee  The primary dealers are the ones that are the market-makers, market-makers in the Government of Canada debt, the large investment dealers.

Finance committee  Thank you. Yes, the recession is now, and obviously the sooner the stimulus comes, the better, because in part when people hear bad news, that does affect confidence and the effect on confidence can certainly amplify the problems. When consumers are nervous about their employme

Finance committee  The importance to the economy is that, as you know, leasing companies are having difficulties; they cannot raise capital easily on the market, and leasing is an important part. Business owners, if they cannot buy equipment, would lease it. Many consumers prefer to lease a car ins

Finance committee  Thank you. Yes, we are in a recession. There will be losses. There will be difficulties, and obviously a larger number of sectors will be in difficulties, in a sense. To the extent that there are losses that have to be absorbed, that will have an effect on confidence and an e

Finance committee  No, not to my knowledge. We have looked at the Bank of Canada in our December financial system review. We have looked at the household sector. As you know, the household sector is very indebted or has increased its debt considerably. Most of that, of course, is mortgage debt and