A More Highly Regulated Canadian Economy Outperforms the U. S. and

Conservatives Are Horrified,  This Cannot Happen?

Stephen Gordon of Universite Laval writes (thanks to Mark Thoma) on the Worthwhile Canadian Initiative says that

Of all my "Canada is not the US" posts, this is the one that makes me most grateful.

So what is it that Mr. Gordon is grateful about? How about this chart here.



And This Chart Here




And This Chart Here



 He compares the U. S. and Canada on the basis of Asset and Wealth data, and concludes.

There's been talk of a Japan-like 'lost decade' in the US; that seems optimistic. US real per capita net worth is back to what it was back in 1999.

And

The US data go back to 1952, so I was able to check the last time the real, per capita value of US housing equity was at its current level. Even after looking at all of these graphs, the answer astonished me: 1978. Nineteen seventy-freaking-eight.

Canada suffered through the recession, just alike all other advanced economies, but due to tight banking and credit regulation, it did not have the same magnitude of problems as the U.S., as these graphs show.  There is a lesson here, and it is not, as Mitt Romney suggests, lesser regulation of the financial sector. 

Of course, Conservatives will only accept comparisons like this only when they support a pre-determined position, you know, not one based on facts, logic or data.