Thursday, May 31, 2012

Canada didn't force its mortgage industry to make risky home loans, it created economic stimulus via tax cuts, allowed dynamic industrial structure

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"Nor does Canada have the equivalents of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the quasi-government agencies that created a moral hazard in the U.S. mortgage market."



5/30/12, "Follow Canada To Smaller Government, Stronger Economy," Investors editorial

"Canada had developed a well-earned reputation as a welfare state. But a new understanding has taken root north of the border, and Canadians have pursued some policies the U.S. should also follow.

In the May/June Cato Policy Report, analyst Chris Edwards notes: "In some ways the United States is in even worse fiscal shape today than Canada was two decades ago" when it was suffering through "a deep recession and teetered on the brink of a debt crisis caused by rising government spending."

Canada stopped its slide. Will America?...

The rocketing federal debt is 106% of our economy, the highest it's been since World War II and three times what it was during the 1970s. To say our economy is sluggish is almost to exaggerate.

Making a bleak outlook even harsher is the largest-in-history, economy-crippling tax hike coming in January when the Bush tax cuts expire....

It can happen. After years of implementing socialist policies, Canada, as Sweden has done, quietly reversed course in the 1980s, cutting taxes and launching privatization efforts. The tax cuts have acted as a stimulus while privatization, writes Edwards, "reduced government debt and helped spur economic growth by creating a more dynamic industrial structure."

Canada has pursued, as well, free trade to the benefit of its industries and consumers. It also avoided a housing crisis, such as the meltdown that still plagues the U.S. economy, because the mortgage industry there isn't pressured by the government to make risky home loans.

Nor does Canada have the equivalents of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the quasi-government agencies that created a moral hazard in the U.S. mortgage market."...


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