Pittsburgh Tribune Live Opinion
To avoid a financial-meltdown rerun, go "back to the future" -- via Canada, whose banks largely avoided the economic fallout of the U.S. housing bust by never abandoning commonsense lending practices.
The International Monetary Fund and World Economic Forum say Canada's banking system is the world's healthiest. That's because Canadian bankers, unlike their U.S. counterparts beginning in the 1990s, never set aside time-tested lending requirements.
Canadian banks didn't chase the subprime market. They kept reserves high. They never stopped mandating substantial down payments, mortgage insurance (remember that?) for borrowers with smaller down payments and proof of borrowers' income.
More...
