Neither Canadian nor US schools are really superior to one another. I considered attending a Canadian university (University of Calgary) after high school but chose UW-Madison instead. The difference in tuition was negligible then. The only major difference is the credit requirements. Most bachelors degree programs only require 90 credits in Canada, where as US schools require 120. However, you rarely see multiple choice mid-terms and final exams in Canadian schools. You really must have the material put to heart in order to pass. Australian and some UK universities operate on a similar model offering 3-year bachelor degrees. Still, there is a reason why foreign students flock to the US.
What is most telling is that US politicos are scrambling around for solutions.... When a fine example ....is right in front of them.... This tells one .....what one needs to know....
I will agree that we don't need any Wall Street /GS hacks such as Rubin or Paulson to be secretaries of treasury. However, these hacks didn't introduce and pass legislations - they had greased the wheels pretty well to have both parties passing the laws in their favor. Whether you like Geithner or not, at least he did not work for any firms on Wall St and he rejected Sanford Weill's offer to take over as Citigroup's chief executive.
I am surprised regarding the 90 credit vs. 120 credit item, I had to do 120 credits for my own degree, wasn't aware of the three year programs (are you referring to some form of co-op education?). More importantly, I personally feel that there is a great deal of pain coming down the pipeline for Canadian banks. Regulation has certainly helped, but our real estate valuations have not yet truly begun to decline (both commercial and residential real estate are down only moderately from the peak). We have experienced a recent uptick on the residential side, during a recession, due primarily to cheap money (low interest rates). The pain is likely to begin soon. There has been a great deal of high risk residential lending over the past few years, much of which was considered to be "prime" lending, effectively backed by the Government of Canada (CMHC, Genworth, etc.). For example, lending standards for self-employed borrowers were particularly lax and open to abuse (stated income), this arguably higher risk category of borrower is also likely to be encountering the most pain during this recession. I think we will see that a review of the Canadian banking system could be much more interesting in 1-3 years.
........................................................................................... One should think about where Canada would be had the US had the Canadian system before $Trillions were ejected out of the economy....by the highly flawed US system.....
I would agree that the US did some exceptionally bad things with their lending, causing the majority of the current global economic situation, but we are far from perfect in Canada. Canadian banks are exposed to some pretty questionable/risky assets, particularly in the commercial real estate space. I am also concerned about CMHC's level of residential exposure should default rates substantially increase. The percentage of mortgages three months in arrears has recently been increasing substantially in Canada, even though we are still in relatively acceptable shape compared to historical levels, as well as much lower than current US numbers.
As a Canadian let me assure you that the Canadian ideology of Capitalism stinks. Lower Middle Class Heaven. IF that's good enough for you, then I highly recommend you adopt it !