SocraticGadfly: Canada, banks, housing, liberal non-skepticism

January 13, 2011

Canada, banks, housing, liberal non-skepticism

Truthout is the latest batch of non-skeptical liberal to left-liberal types to fall in love with Canada's banks and financial system.

You can't have it both ways, unskeptical left-liberals.

You cannot have Canada-style banking with no bank closures, a high homeownership rate AND tight mortgage lending standards without other aspects of Canadian housing you don't mention, including a smaller house size, no mortgage refinancing let alone HELOC-type refinancing, etc.

And, you can't have this in isolation without addressing income disparity, etc.

You can't have it in isolation from Americans of all sorts of income levels wanting McMansions.

In short, you can't get the banking system of Canada imported to the U.S. in isolation.

And, there's no guarantee, even if you could eliminate the mortgage interest deduction and change other U.S. laws, that you could change American mindsets that much. I'd rather doubt it, in fact.

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