Fahreed Zakaria, he of the teeth and intense gaze, writes in Newsweek (http://www.newsweek.com/id/183670) about our Canadian banks, which, nyah-hah, are in good shape, thank you very much.

During trips to the U.S., dealing with American banks was something I always hated.  Once my late husband gave me a hundred dollar bill to go do some shopping.  I figured I'd break it, so went into the nearest bank, as I would back home, and get some twenties and tens, no questions asked, as I would back home.  Instead the teller stared at me suspiciously (as innocent-looking a snowbird as one could find) and told me that unless I was a customer, forget it.  

Last year I lost my credit card in Chicago and arrived on the West Coast quite moneyless.  Visa Canada wired funds to Western Union, which issued me a cheque, and I took it to a bank they recommended.  After a lot of whining, some threatening of tears and stomping of foot(and that was just the teller), eventually they gave me the money (a lousy $300, nothing earthshaking)...but only after taking my thumb-print.

And don't get me started on my dealings with a bank my late husband had a (modest) account in.  I finally emptied the account and closed it, sending them the (I thought) final fee, only to get another demand for $40.  I think I'll just hang onto the statement for a bit, until they go broke and I'm off the hook (as if they could get me anyway).  Already they have had to merge with thumbprint bank...

Anyway, that's just complaints about tourist peanuts.  There's bigger nuts to roast.

Zakaria starts his article with, "The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a 'Boring Headline Contest' and decided that the winner was 'Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.' Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company...  

"Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th...

" Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize...

"Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada's more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking."

He says that part of our relative lack of problems (NOT THAT WE'RE OUTTA THE WOODS - WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER) comes from not having mortgage interest be tax-deductible, and (other stuff I don't quite understand).  He says the expensive American approach "allows the average Joe to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home. Sixty-eight percent of Americans own their own homes. And the rate of Canadian homeownership? It's 68.4 percent."

He goes on to talk about our budget surpluses during the past 12 years, a fiscally-firm pension system and our health care system, which latter accounts "for 9.7 percent of GDP, versus 15.2 percent [in the U.S.], and yet does better on all major indexes. Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; 'healthy life expectancy' is 72 years, versus 69."  He neglected to mention that it's single-payer government-financed system, i.e., SOCIALIST (run for the hills), and therefore it doesn't matter to American ideologues if it's cheaper and better (covers everybody, for starters).

Zakaria also thinks our Canadian immigration system helps us.  "We [the U.S.] issue a small number of work visas and green cards, turning away from our shores thousands of talented students who want to stay and work here. Canada, by contrast, has no limit on the number of skilled migrants who can move to the country... So the brightest Chinese and Indian software engineers are attracted to the United States, trained by American universities, then thrown out of the country and picked up by Canada—where most of them will work, innovate and pay taxes for the rest of their lives." (Okay, one caveat here - we have immigrant engineers etc. driving taxis and running 7-11s, so it's not all roses.)

Zakaria concludes, "in the councils of the financial world, Canada is pushing for new rules for financial institutions that would reflect its approach. This strikes me as, well, a worthwhile Canadian initiative."

Haha.

If we Canadians are boring, do remember the (purported) Chinese proverb, slightly reworded - you Americans live in a, well, interesting country.