Canadian Housing Question

[c1ue]

Re: Canadian Housing Question

No, the US is going print/spend route. Canada is structurally tied whatever the US does. If we were to cut our ties, our entire economy could fall on itself face tomorrow.

And what exactly is the difference?

People simplify the issues too much. There are factors at play that people don't quite understand on either the bull or bear side.

And what would these mysterious factors be? The technotopian machina ex deus miracle?

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Canadian Housing Question

Not at all, let's use our assets to the best we can. But let's just not kid ourselves. Our finances are in order because we are flush not because we are tightwads.

For example, we do have medicare.. Is that really austerity?

We do however have the GST though to help pay for Medicare. And yes you have to give Mulroney credit for that (my favorite prime minister), though probably not Canadians considering how overwhelmingly stupid they were about it. He even ended up killing the PC party over it.

The implementation of the HST is impressive as well. These are things that aren't being done in the US which need to be done.

However, world wide though, consumption taxes I think are the norm and not some particularly unique thing in Canada.

The similarity between Australia and Canada is that we are large nations rich with resources but not overburdened by people. We are very lucky in a world that needs our rich resource wealth.

[LargoWinch]

Re: Canadian Housing Question

The implementation of the HST is impressive as well. These are things that aren't being done in the US which need to be done.

blaze, what we need is a smaller government, not higher taxes.

I disagree with the HST and your point, when we spend $16B on useless military hardware.

Reduce the government and taxes; that is key.

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Canadian Housing Question

Reduce the government and taxes; that is key.

Ah, but reduce which taxes? That's the real key.

I'm all for consumption taxes. The more the merrier is my opinion. Unthinking consumption is ruining this planet.

What I despise is income tax. Tax people for working? Ludicrous.

[GRG55]

Re: Canadian Housing Question

Not at all, let's use our assets to the best we can. But let's just not kid ourselves. Our finances are in order because we are flush not because we are tightwads.

For example, we do have medicare.. Is that really austerity?

We do however have the GST though to help pay for Medicare. And yes you have to give Mulroney credit for that (my favorite prime minister), though probably not Canadians considering how overwhelmingly stupid they were about it. He even ended up killing the PC party over it...

That and the Free Trade agreements, which I thought was a pretty courageous piece of policy work for any government in this country. Chrétien campaigned against both the GST and NAFTA as I recall, and once in office embraced them fully...quelle surprise.

I have always wondered if the Conservative Party would not have unravelled if Mulroney had not felt so compelled to deal with the constitutional issue. Meech Lake was his undoing in my mind, especially after he could no longer maintain internal discipline once Lucien Bouchard went back into the resurgent separatist camp setting the stage for the second referendum.

The implementation of the HST is impressive as well. These are things that aren't being done in the US which need to be done.

However, world wide though, consumption taxes I think are the norm and not some particularly unique thing in Canada.

The similarity between Australia and Canada is that we are large nations rich with resources but not overburdened by people. We are very lucky in a world that needs our rich resource wealth.

I favour consumption taxes over income taxes and payroll taxes any day.

Certainly we enjoy a fortuitous endowment of natural resource and other wealth. However, what is unique about Canada - as I discovered once I went to live abroad - is that we are actually unusually well governed. There are many, many countries out there that have equal or greater natural endowments than Canada but their societies are complete wrecks because of corruption, tribalism, political nepotism, military adventurism and a host of other 'isms that amount to basically stunningly bad governance.

I had not realized how unusual the Canadian experiment really is until I left the country. It is truly unique to have a country with so many people from so many different places and cultures living together is relative harmony. And having returned I have developed a healthy intolerance for those immigrant and religious groups, and the politicians lacking character that cravenly pander to them, that attempt to abuse our multiculturalism.

This is one of the distinctions between Canada and Australia. The Aussies are, unfortunately, still living with the hangover of their long history of xenophobia.

[Spartacus]

Re: Canadian Housing Question

If GRG55 & blazespinnaker come to power I'm going back to my old low-consumption ways

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...6301#post76301

I favour consumption taxes over income taxes and payroll taxes any day.

It would be great to see a study that ranks the effect of various types of taxes on overall employment levels across an economy - intuitively, consumption taxes wouldn't reduce employment like payroll taxes do, but I'm getting more and more skeptical of what's "intuitive".

I might love to see lower payroll taxes overall, but higher taxation of excessive overtime. Since lower payroll taxes eliminate one reason for overtime, one might never need to implement the overtime taxes.

[Spartacus]

Re: outright lies about Canada's banking situation

Lending standards; "out the window" was just the beginning

Seen on the blog of one "Garth Turner", former elected member of Canada's federal parliament

T.O. Bubble Boy on 09.06.10 at 6:38 pm

“idiot lenders” is a bit of a misleading statement — the banks are quite smart for taking 0% risk and passing the crap over to CMHC for insurance.

It’s disturbing to think that Flaherty/Harper and others would even consider trying to further stimulate the housing market.

No Money Down Mortgages are already everywhere, so obviously the current rules aren’t even being followed:

CIBC (up to 7% cashback!!!)

RBC (also 7% cashback!)

Northwood Mortgage (5.5% cashback)

TD Canada Trust (5% cashback)

Scotiabank (up to 5% cashback)

PC Financial (5% cashback)

Laurentian — 5% cashback

CanEquity – no money down

Mortgages Canada – 0% down

Mortgage Intelligence – no down payment

Centum – 0% down

Ontario Equity (part of CanEquity) – no money down

But, don’t worry — no subprime problem here!

[LargoWinch]

Re: outright lies about Canada's banking situation

I like the T.O. Bubble Boy dude on Garth's otherwise dumb blog.

Sharp dude.

Perhaps we can convince him to join iTulip...