Please spend

Sounding like Mark Carney, Jim Flaherty urges the private sector to uphold its part of the bargain.

"We’ve done a lot through the tax system to encourage Canadian executives, business people, to start utilizing some of the capital they have on their balance sheets," said Flaherty. "At a certain point, it’s not up to the government to stimulate the economy, it’s up to the private sector, and they have lots of capital."

In response to Mr. Carney’s comments, the Globe made a list of low-debt, cash-rich companies. Mike Moffatt blames Mr. Carney for the situation.