Quick Thought on the Throne Speech and GTA housing bubble
Posted by turdslinger on 4th March 2010
So the throne speech includes this: “Canadians live within their means and expect their governments to do the same.”
That sounds familiar: “But families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same.” Obama said that not too long ago.
In both cases the remarks are vague enough to be both true and disconcerting.
The throne speech comment is followed immediately with “Spending designed for a rainy day should not become an all-weather practice.” Again, vague enough to be both true and disconcerting.
Spending isn’t necessarily bad. Spending more than you make isn’t necessarily bad either. So long as the spending is useful.
Also, I don’t know about the rest of the country, but there’s clearly a housing bubble in Toronto. You can rent for well below the cost of owning. Maybe this is a demographic thing with too many 20- and 30-somethings buying a house just because it’s what you’re supposed to do? I don’t know, it’s a hypothesis I’m not going to examine right now. Or a rush ahead of the increased restrictions? Are there readily available data on the types of mortgages being taken out? When everything crashes, the next mayor’s going to be fucked.
Posted in Bad Policy, Economics, Economy, Politics, government, toronto | No Comments »