’ s important to come up with temporary plans to help firms, as has been done in the area of employment with the temporary layoffs [ in spanish : expedientes de regulacion temporal, or ertes ]. what is your opinion on the public loan guarantee programmes to enable the banking sector to finance firms with credit lines and loans? they are very important, of course. all countries have put in place loan guarantees for firms. this is a good thing. but we also have to avoid the fragmentation of the internal market. not all guarantees are identical. the european investment bank ( eib ), for example, is offering a very sound shared system of guarantees. we are now seeing national guarantee schemes and we should work towards making these converge to ensure that credit continues to flow, that banks ’ balance sheets remain healthy, and that we don ’ t see fragmentation along national lines. although different countries will always be given different ratings by the ratings agencies. 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches the ecb has been very active since the beginning of this crisis. do you think that what ’ s been done so far is enough? the ecb has intervened on three levels. first, we have provided liquidity to the banks, under very good conditions, and we have launched a package of temporary collateral easing measures. in addition, in our role as the single banking supervisor, we have given banks the flexibility to make use of the capital buffers they had built up, so that they can continue financing and providing credit to firms and households. and finally, we have expanded our monetary policy operations. in 2020, asset purchases will reach €1. 1 trillion ( mainly of public debt ) to avoid fragmentation of the euro area. spain will receive between €120 billion and €130 billion of this money. in the current crisis, this is the main financial shield for spain and the other euro area countries. but countries are staring down the barrel of increasing expenditures and decreasing revenues … countries will experience a deep recession that will have an impact on their public finances. this will entail greater funding needs, of between €1 trillion and €1. 5 trillion, an amount the likes of which we ’ ve probably never seen before. they will also issue public debt to finance themselves, which is precisely why the ecb ’ s intervention in the bond markets aims to avoid fragmentation at an extremely difficult time. the ecb balance sheet is overflowing with debt from euro area countries. where

##ediment is the lack of preparedness among new college entrants, with large numbers of those students needing remedial courses that earn no college credit. low readiness contributes to persistently low college completion rates, especially among lower - income, parttime, and nontraditional students. higher dropout rates, in turn, contribute to a substantial reduction in the net expected and realized returns from college attendance. the third major barrier to college attendance and completion is the rise in the cost of a college education. while a college education is generally a good investment, the cost of attending a fouryear college has risen considerably faster than wages over the last several decades. this means that college has become increasingly unaffordable — which can act as a drag on economic mobility and the growth of a college - educated workforce, and by extension, on productivity growth and living standards. as has been well documented by my new york fed colleagues, many young americans have adjusted to rising tuition and fees by taking on more debt. this trend highlights the importance of the federal student loan program, which has helped mitigate the impact of the shift in financing of 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches higher education from state and local funding to students and their families over the past few decades. however, the end result is that more students leave college with significantly higher amounts of debt. student loan debt has more than tripled over the past two decades and now totals over $ 1. 4 trillion. it is important to consider what these changes in financing higher education mean for economic mobility. first, new york fed researchers have documented that a large percentage of student borrowers — especially those who attend less selective colleges or drop out — have trouble staying current on their loans, and often become delinquent and default on their debt. we also know that these factors — slow repayment, delinquency, and default — are most prevalent among those from more modest family circumstances. in addition, there is evidence that student debt acts as a drag on homeownership. specifically, our research indicates that when college tuition rises in a state, it leads to higher levels of student debt and a lower homeownership rate. these factors matter for inequality and social mobility, because increasing home equity is the major form of wealth accumulation for the great majority of american families. thus, rising tuition and changes in the way that college is financed appear to have diminished the ability of higher education to lift people from poverty into the middle class.