JonboyE

Some might enjoy this article:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/183670

Steve_P

I'm sure someone will come along and poke holes in it, but it sure paints a rosy picture of Canada...don't it?

JonboyE

I am sure they will, and there are a few holes to be poked. The bit about deregulation of the banking system in the City and Wall Street is spot on.

ann m

That is quite interesting though - and it confirms some frequently quoted opinions (on this forum amongst others) that although Canada most definitely will suffer in the worldwide downturn, it won't necessarily be flattened by it. Those recently 'let go' by employers may not agree. Who really knows, eh? Interesting comments about TD bank though, for example.

kiton6

Contrast that article with the majority of the "doom and gloom" on the CBC news website in reference to the Canadian economy. This brings up another question: as our mainstream media outlets love to focus on 'negative' news and continually ram it down our proverbial throats, will this in itself prolong the economic crisis as people are sent into further panic which in turn stops the majority of people spending, therefore, causing further crisis?

Novocastrian

Thanks for the link.

Of course they fail to mention that the bacon is sh*t.

Steve_P

Mmmmm bacon.

danfolkestone

Except that it isn't. Britain has been steadily increasing regulation of the banking and financial services industry since 1994 (triggered by the collapse of Barings Bank), which covers the last 15 years. The Bush administration also increased regulation of financial services - it was Bill Clinton who deregulated and he lost office 9 years ago now.

Despite that, the Canadian banking system is still more regulated than its counterparts in the US or UK, so I suppose that the fundamental point does hold.

JonboyE

I was not trying to make an anti Bush point. I was thinking of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley (Financial Services Modernization) Act of 1999. This repealed earlier legislation that was specifically put in place to guard against another 1930s style banking collapse. These things take a little time to work through ...

The regulations Bush introduced deal with many things including anti-terrorist and anti-money laundering, but not "safety and soundness" regulations that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act largely abolished.

Lemonfish

The glowing endorsement of the Skilled Worker Immigration system is interesting, given that the Government of Canada appears to be moving away from the current 67 points deal.

It is setting up various studies to evaluate whether the Skilled Worker Program has actually been meeting its objectives over the last 5 years - assessing the whole PhDs driving taxis issue.

Also wonder if one reason the banks are so healthy is that they charge for all sorts of stuff that would be often be free in the UK (and probably elsewhere) - monthly account fees for example.

Still, they did set up sensible rules on banks and if others had followed Canada's example they would be in better shape right now.

rwin

Bacon becomes sh*t.