Risking Everyone Else’s Economic Security

Froma Harrop gets down to it:

Suppose the U.S. government had posted a budget surplus in 12 of the past 13 years. Suppose not a single major American financial institution had failed or needed a government bailout. Suppose the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 6.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, rather than at 2.7 percent.

Canada did, Harrop instructs, explaining that “What Canada had was a civic culture that wanted government to regulate financial activity.”

It’s not exactly apples and apples. Harrop runs down a few of the differences. Canada’s vast mineral wealth. America thinks it’s our job to provide military security for the rest of the world, “a job that other countries are all-too-pleased to give us,” she notes. Kinda runs up our costs (and tax burden). But Canada’s regulatory structures help keep the foxes out of the hen house.

How much are Canada’s businesses suffering? Harrop reports that Toronto’s large cap index has outperformed the S&P 500 so far this year by 27 percent. Anytime new regulations are proposed here, American foxes yelp in Pavlovian fashion about how regulation will make them an endangered species.

No, that’s the American Middle Class.

Harrop observes:

What we have is an elite willing to risk everyone else’s economic security to enable a few hotshots to win big at the casino of recklessness and fraud — while maintaining a variety of taxpayer backstops to reduce their risks. The joint never gets closed, also thanks to the large numbers of ordinary citizens trained to holler “socialism” every time the government tries to set a ground rule.

Yet even the conservative Washington Times will report that Canada’s banking system is “the healthiest banking system in the world.” The World Economic Forum agrees.

The AP reported in June that Canada had already reclaimed three-quarters of the jobs lost during the recession, although some recent gains have been in part-time work not expected to last.

Troublesome nuance.