Canada's Economy is the Envy of the World

According to this article on Yahoo, Canada's economy is strong and leaders of other countries want to learn from it. Here are some highlights from the article: * Canada's economy grew at a 6.1 percent annual rate in the first three months of this year. The housing market is hot and three-quarters of the 400,000 jobs lost during the recession have been recovered. * Finance Minister Jim Flaherty recalled visiting China in 2007 and hearing suggestions "that the Canadian banks were perhaps boring and too risk-adverse. And when I was there two weeks ago some of my same counterparts were saying to me, 'You have a very solid, stable banking system in Canada,' and emphasizing that. There wasn't anything about being sufficiently risk-oriented." * As the U.S. and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries over the last 15 years, Canada refused to do so. The banks also aren't as leveraged as their U.S. or European peers.  * In Canada's concentrated banking system, five major banks dominate the market and regulators know each of the top bank executives personally. * There was no mortgage meltdown or subprime crisis in Canada. Banks don't package mortgages and sell them to the private market, so they need to be sure their borrowers can pay back the loans. * Canada  had 12 straight years of budget surpluses.  When recession struck, they pumped stimulus money into the economy, with the result that Canada again has a large deficit. But it is recovering from the recession faster than others, and although its deficit is currently at a record high, the International Monetary Fund expects Canada to be the only one of the seven major industrialized democracies to return to surplus by 2015.