Africa for Norway

We noted before that there were some problems in Norway.  The whole butter thing....it was terrible.

Now, though, help is on the way.  Via the EYM....Africa for Norway!  As the young man says, "Have you SEEN what is going on there?"  Pasty white herring eaters need our help!  Can't you give?

No Banking Crisis, Eh?

Why Didn't Canada Have A Banking Crisis in 2008 (or in 1930, or 1907, or ...)?

NBER Working Paper, August 2011

Abstract: The financial crisis of 2008 engulfed the banking system of the United States and many large European countries. Canada was a notable exception. In this paper we argue that the structure of financial systems is path dependent. The relative stability of the Canadian banks in the recent crisis compared to the United States in our view reflected the original institutional foundations laid in place in the early 19th century in the two countries. The Canadian concentrated banking system that had evolved by the end of the twentieth century had absorbed the key sources of systemic risk—the mortgage market and investment banking—and was tightly regulated by one overarching regulator. In contrast the relatively weak, fragmented, and crisis prone U.S. banking system that had evolved since the early nineteenth century, led to the rise of securities markets, investment banks and money market mutual funds (the shadow banking system) combined with multiple competing regulatory authorities. The consequence was that the systemic risk that led to the crisis of 2008 was not contained.

Nod to Kevin Lewis

Oh! Canada!

Our northern neighbors are hosting the latest G-7 Finance Ministers meeting this week. In Iquluit Nunavut!

Canada's Finance Department, the organizer of the G-7 event, has been limited in the activities it could plan. There are only 300 hotel rooms in town. And because some 500 guests, including ministers, security and media are expected, some will have to sleep in dorm rooms.

With a dearth of limousines in Iqaluit, ministers will use the 15 rental cars available from the town's single car-rental agency. After those are full, school buses will ferry around attendees further down the diplomatic food chain.

Local residents are anxious to see how the dignitaries respond to Saturday's traditional Inuit feast, which has muskox, caribou and seal on the menu—some of it skinned and served raw.

But, people I come not to bury Canada but to praise her. Why? Well because Timothy Geithner is the guy who goes to these meetings right? Who knows, maybe he'll get stuck riding a bus to his dorm room. Maybe he'll get slush kicked up on him by a passing snowmobile. Maybe he'll have a run in with some amorous caribou! Maybe he'll turn out to be allergic to seal heart!

Consider all the possibilities.....