I experienced the crisis in Belgium with Fortis, and that bank represented a huge risk for that country. Now, it is part of BNP and this has been absolutely instrumental in avoiding a catastrophe. For Europe, this is an important question. You see the banking systems are in general more national than they were. Not in Portugal, but in many countries.
The outlook for economic activity and prices has improved and stock prices have risen by more than 30 percent since the beginning of the year. While these should be factors that lead to increases in long-term interest rates, Japan’s long-term interest rates have declined from about 0.8 percent as of the beginning of the year to less than 0.7 percent.