I thought this article from the AEI was a pretty good summary.
Some of these points I was aware of, others were new to me.
But it all reinforced a conclusion I'd had already reached: that Canada's banking system was indeed safer - for the banks.
Canadian homeowners, faced with full-recourse debt and interest payments renegotiated ever five years, might reasonably point out that safety for the banks isn't free.
But then, nothing is.
I am still paying off the debt incurred from my homeownership days in Ontario and there is NO WAY I will ever be able to afford anything in BC.
ReplyDeleteI don't get how our banks could need bailouts... it just boggles my mind ...
The quotes in this story on a so-called "non-partisan"* report (from the _Roosevelt_ institute) are fascinating - because many could have been lifted straight from a bunch of Tea-Party activists...
ReplyDeleteIf you really start counting the folks who believe the economy is on thin ice, and that the bank bailout has been botched, I'm guessing you end up with a clear majority of people.
I live in an extremely liberal city (Portland OR) an so I have plenty of opportunity to spread Tea Party ideas (so long as I don't identify as a Tea Partier, which would set of an allergic reaction). I'll settle for spreading the ideas for now.
* non-partisan: we got both parties... Bolsheviks _and_ Trotskyites... ok that was low but I couldn't resist... but Elizabeth Warren (whom I disagree with on many points but nonetheless respect), Joseph Stiglitz (another Nobel winning liberal), and Simon Johnson (ex IMF, now MIT professor and shrill d00mer) are all fairly described as "center left". I didn't see any conservatives quoted; perhaps there were some on the committee.
I've only ever owned property in Canada so I didn't realise that mortgages were so different in other countries. I see the 5 years renewal requirement as an opportunity to save money.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first got a mortgage, I signed up for the full 5 year fixed rate term, then when I renewed the 3 year rate was lower so I did that. Then a fellow I worked with said that you would always come out ahead doing 6 to 12 month variables. I was too chicken for that, so I took a five year variable (at the exact right time) my current mortgage interest rate is 1.45%.
I'm liking it!