Helmut Pastrick. Central 1 Credit Union

This week's speaker was Helmut Pastrick who is the Chief Economist for Central 1 Credit Union, the new umbrella organisation for the credit union systems for B. C. and Ontario. The Bail Out package. Look upon it as a saviour of the entire financial system not just of the big banks and Wall Street. It is that big. A year ago this would have seemed impossible. The equity market is in sharp decline. Our TSE exchange has done better as we are a commodity based economy. The ability to raise credit in the world finance markets is being compromised. This is the most sever situation since the great depression Housing is off 20% so far maybe 25% and this could lead to a 40 to 50% decline. Lumber exports are down and falling. This mortgage crisis really started in August of last year. Insurance of the financial services have undergone a crisis. This has been an unregulated market and resulted in certain financial products (read---Sub-prime mortgages) that were then packaged up as asset backed bonds and sold off. This is the biggest crisis since the great depression. Not one or two of the big banks but all 5 of them are now gone as we knew them. This has not happened in Canada. Our banking sector is still quite secure. Mortgages have been difficult to get and especially commercial mortgages. The entire financial system needs to be saved. This is too big to be allowed to fail. Canada's economy is set to grow 2 to 3 % next year, provided this savings package goes through.