Canada knows how to run a bank...

Canada knows how to run a bank. So says the Washington Times in an article entitled Sound Banking Saved Canada.  Good to see the Great White North showing restraint.  South of the 49th, we thought it would be "kinder, gentler" to allow everyone to be able to afford a home.  The Federal government - not the banks - mandated that banks lend to people who could not afford the traditional down-payment.

The business model they imposed on the banking system could be summed up as:

Let's lend money to high-risk individuals and see if they can pay it back.  

Imagine their surprise when people began to default in record numbers. Senators and congressmen were quick to blame banking executives when it all came down like a house of cards.

The banks are not innocent accomplices however.  They foisted profitable adjustable rate mortgages on unsuspecting families who could not foresee the time bomb that would go off in 3-5 years, wrecking their credit and forcing them back into rentals. Some Utah banks and lending companies have not learned their lessons.  They are still advertising seductive adjustable rate mortgages to create a new crop of victims.  Hopefully the public has come to know better.  For those who have not, expensive lessons lie ahead.