Banks in Canada

Over on the Washington Post today Steven Pearlstein has done a Q & A with the public (for his column referred to in much of the discussion, click here). Someone asked him how the Canadian banking system seemed to be in so much better health than the American. His reply:

The Canadians have a more logical regulatory structure, as I understand it. They also have more respect for civil servants and government in general, and bank regulators in particular -- the Canadian public, for some reason I never understood, gets very agitated when banks make too much profit. Kind of a populist thing from the prairie. But what's also at work is that their banks are simply more conservatively run and haven't got caught up in the kind of silly and dangerous competition that the big American banks have.

The Canadian Way. I always thought it was much like the Minnesota Way until Minnesotans decided their distinctive heritage could be safely relegated to "The Prairie Home Companion" and joined the national culture.

alas poor Anoka.