The strength in European earnings is the result of a tremendous rise in productivity. That explains why even though profits are up and stock markets are rising, unemployment is still high. European companies are not hiring, but they're growing.

This has been the great paradox--very successful European equity markets surrounded by a lukewarm economic environment. It's the opposite of the U.S.

We made solid progress during the quarter against our key priorities of maintaining and building business strength, improving productivity and balance sheet strength. Continuing to deliver against these priorities will allow us to position CIBC for consistent, sustainable performance over the long term.

Because of the lack of interoperability, we can lose billions of dollars in productivity,

When we truly need to do is often what we most feel like avoiding.

You don't actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it "done.