period a merger falls apart because of a failed shareholder vote, for example, the counterparties willot be protected against the obvious risk of the target's bankruptcy. many have asked why the federal reserve did not intervene and guaranty the trading obligations of lehman, ending its merger with barclays? they observed that we lent approximately $29 billion to facilitate the rger of jpmorgan chase and bear stearns, and they look at our commitment to lend up to $85 billion it aig. under the law, the new york fed does not have the legal authority to provide what i would characterize as a naked guaranty. one that would be unsecured, and not limited in amount. lehman had absolutely no ability to pledge the amount of collateral required to satisfactorily secure such a fed guaranty. finally, without security, a guaranty of this kind would present enormous risks to the american taxpayer. upon a lehman default, the taxpayer would be liable for lehman's trading obligations. in the end, noescue was effected because we had no willing and capable merger partner. thank you again for the opportunit