dr. leal brainard served as undersecretary of international affairs at the treasury from 2010 to 2013. dr. bernard previously served as deputy director of the national economic council and as the u.s. sherpa to the g8. dr. brainard also served as vice president of the ber kins institution and was associate professor of applied economics at m.i.t. sloan school of management. mr. gus tap poe velasquez aguillar is currently director of the latino economic development center in washington, d.c. previously served for six years as the dlum office of human rights. he was also previously the director of the office of latino affairs in washington, d.c., d.c. mr. mark mcwatters currently served as assistant dean for graduate programs at southern methodist university's school of law. previously he practiced for more than two decades as a domestic and cross border tax merger, acquisition and corporate finance attorney. in addition he served as a judicial clerk to the honorable walter eli of the ninth circuit court of appeals. we will now swer in the nominees. will the nominees please rise and raise

dr. fisher, secretary brainard and governor powell.great deal has been written and said about so-called expansion nar austerity being tried by the countries in the europe. the idea was the countries experiencing a serious economic downturn after the financial crisis and who saw their budgets fall into deficit and their borrowing costs rise as a result of the downturn could best move forward by implementing deep fiscal cuts and monetary tightening with the hope that this would somehow stimulate economic growth by encouraging investor confidence. from my perspective, the way it played out has been quite the opposite. fiscal cuts during an economic downturn caused by weak demand further weakened the country's economy and posed great human cost in the form of high unemployment and canceling out the budgetary savings because of the weaker economy. so i would like to ask you all, what lessons do you think you would know as the country's experiences and have recent experiences such as these or are conversely the enhanced stimulus efforts upsi