is good for you is bad news for me ; • my understanding is that your agricultural sector is currently recovering from the ravages of recent hurricanes ; but, this crisis should spur you to move beyond recovery, towards not only agricultural self - sufficiency, but towards making grenada one of the regional food - baskets. you have a ready market in trinidad and tobago, where food shortages and in particular, insufficient supplies of fruits and vegetables are contributing to an over 30 per cent increase in food prices ; • the crisis presents an opportunity for you to strengthen your skills bank by luring back skilled grenadians and west indians, who could be the first to suffer from the labour market problems in the us, uk and other places. there are highly qualified caribbean people out there who just want the nudge to come back home and the unemployment and uncertainty in the us and uk may be just enough to tip the balance, to provide that nudge. • and some of these returning nationals may be able to bring not only skills but capital, as well, in the form of direct investment. interest rates are much higher in the caribbean than in the industrialized world, rates of return on capital are higher here than they are currently in the us and it ’ s our job to go out and showcase our advantages to the caribbean diaspora ; to entice them to set up businesses back home. this is the right time and we should not lose the opportunity once again. ladies and gentlemen, in my many years of working with the imf i have been exposed to many economies, both developed and developing, both large and small. i have seen economies waste resources and i have seen economies do miracles with little. i can tell you that by developing country standards, the oecs economies are very well endowed. as a region we have abundant sun, sand and good weather ( most of the time ) ; our most attractive art, music and culture ; proximity to the united states, fairly good educational resources, and fluency in the english language, which has become the language of trade and business. i know also, the frustrations that caribbean governments have faced in their quest for economic transformation. oft - times globalization has not worked to our advantage. i am acquainted with the loss of preferences in europe for our agricultural commodities ; our efforts at light manufacturing, which floundered in the face of technological advances, increases in labour costs and the advent of china as the world ’ s manufacturer ; and when the

effective consumer protection produces a complementary benefit for consumers by making more capital available to meet their needs. similarly, systematic efforts to keep borrowers who may have trouble meeting their loan obligations in their homes on a sustainable basis, by providing more certainty to the market, can have the complementary benefit of ensuring the flow of capital for potential borrowers. with these principles in mind, i will discuss current initiatives to mitigate foreclosures. then i will spend most of my time discussing the board's recent initiative in proposing new regulations that apply to all mortgage lenders, not just federally supervised banks, that are designed to prevent abuse, unfairness, and deception in residential mortgage lending. the expansive scope of this proposal is essential to ensure that consumer protections convey board staff calculation based on data from first american loanperformance. board staff calculation based on data from the mortgage bankers association. board staff calculation based on data from first american loanperformance. across the mortgage market, regardless of whether a borrower receives a loan from a bank, an independent mortgage company, or through a mortgage broker. preventing unnecessary foreclosures given the high cost of foreclosures to lenders and investors and the disruption and distress that foreclosure can cause to consumers, their families, and their communities, it is in everyone's interest to avoid foreclosures whenever other viable options exist. with large numbers of borrowers facing potential repayment problems, it is in the interest of borrowers and investors alike for the industry to develop prudent loan modification programs and other assistance to help borrowers on a systematic and sustainable basis. as you know, there are various initiatives underway to help borrowers struggling with their mortgages. neighborworks america and the homeownership preservation foundation offer financial counseling services through the homeowners hope hotline. the hope now alliance, a broad - based coalition of government sponsored enterprises, industry trade associations, counseling agencies, and mortgage servicers, is making efforts to find ways to help borrowers through loan modification plans. the federal housing administration has established the fhasecure plan to provide qualified borrowers who are delinquent because of an interest rate reset and who have some equity in the home the opportunity to refinance into an fha - insured mortgage. i have been an active proponent of such streamlined systematic approaches to reduce transactions costs and to help mitigate foreclosure risk, and i strongly encourage market participants to adopt and to implement