Saturday, February 21, 2009

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

Fareed Zakaria is a cool dude. He writes for Newsweek and is editor of the magazine's world edition; being from India, has a credible voice on the world scene. He is one face in an increasingly cosmopolitan America.

Here is a piece of his on Canada and the "common sense" of its banking system.

Some thoughts:

(a) Until the recent upheaval, the primary story about Canada's finance system was that Canada began balancing the budget in the mid 1990s and truly righted the ship (though the budget cuts were not without controversy).

(b) I'm not posting this as a "Go Canada!" thing. I think thoughtful readers from either the US or Canada might gain from seeing this rare perspective.

(c) I find the part about immigration, near the end, to be the most interesting. The immigration policies of the US are definitely not in its best interests. This is repeated by many thoughtful commentators throughout the political spectrum (this inherently excludes Lou Dobbs).

(d) The Canadian media portrays the economic conditions in the same dire terms as the media in the US. Perhaps we don't have a banking crisis but the other ills (housing, jobs) are a clear and present danger.

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