I'm sorry but this is absolute bullshit. One of the primary reason why Canada was not hit as hard as the US is because of the lack of competition between Canadian banks. Here in Canada we have 6-7 major banks that offer Retail, Commercial and Invesment banking services whereas in the US as of 2004 there were as many as 7000+ banks.
Higher competition means more appetite for taking on risk in order to beat others and the rest we all know.
The only person I like representing Canada these days is Mike Carney.. he knows his shit.
yeah I know eh?! I love Mike Carney..absolutely love/admire this guy..was reading his bio on Canadian magazine and was amazed at his talent and background-experience in such young age..and god he is spot on, on every major monetary-economic decision he makes.
About Canadian banks, well one thing that really helped Canadian banks Not to get polluted like that of USA, was that in Canada pretty much "investment bank" is non-existent. whereas in USA, many ppl had put their life savings on Investment banks only, or their retail banks had major financial deals with Investment banks, that when those Investment banks failed, everyone failed with them..
yeah aeeehm...and you know what...Harper's ideological friends were against any stimulus package, health care bill or anything else that would actually contribute to the mess they are responsible for in the Senate, which is the main reason Obama and Democrats can't push their agenda through.
Like I said, talking about practice, not the actual game....but practice.
no honey, things arent as crystal clear as u think it is.
Harper has EVOLVED, CHANGED from how he was during Bush era and made his biggest mistake in sending/adding troops to Afghanistan as per USA request, and now he's realized that and is MAKING UP FOR IT in all other aspects internally with his great policies for Canadians.
but Obama is still the same VAGUE(Akhound-sounding goodlooking guy with nice sweet words) politicians that fooled millions of Americans including Noble Peace Prize committee!
trust me I was fooled by him and his team too until recently, but I talked to few ppl who live IN USA, I went to Chicago and actually discussed American politics-Obama with the taxi driver(the street ppl Obama promised to listen to but never did), and finally found out what American PEOPLE WANT/NEED and how Disconnected Obama's Administration is from American ppl's needs..
thats why "Zob Ahan"( the knowledgeable member here) is spot on when he says "the best investment in USA Real Estate is in "Affordable housing"!!! its sad but soo true..bc Americans gonna live a very poor life in the next 4-8 yrs bc of Obama's wrong policies.
just read newspaper articles(both written in USA and in Canada), and you'll realize how smart American public have got regarding Obama's tricks, and that its perfectly argued in articles here that "dont blame everything on Bush, Unemployment until Bush was in charge was %8.5, but since he left it increased to %10 even until today. so clearly Obama couldnt even contain unemployment despite its massive bailouts/stimulus package".
while in contrary, in Canada Unemployment have DECREASED since Nov 2008 when Recession happened, along with other positive stats here in Canada, and that clearly shows how INCOMPETENT Obama has been in managing/containing current recession in USA, and how COMPETENT Harper/Mike Carney have been in perfectly managing recession in Canada and leading all G8 countries bc of their great management!