As expected, this excellent editorial is woefully buried on page FP-17, which is purposely hard-to-find, well within the increasingly progressive National Post, in its Financial Post section — the good part of that paper. Practically nobody will see it. This is by design. So I thought I’d try to help highlight it here.
We should privatize CMHC
Mortgage agency puts huge risks on taxpayer“…Recent events in the United States are a warning for Canadians about the disastrous effects of misguided public policies in mortgage and housing markets and the real exposure of taxpayers when governments guarantee mortgage financing.
“Through successive waves of legislation over many years, the American government interfered in the U.S. mortgage market through legislation that encouraged financial institutions to issue mortgages to high-risk groups for social reasons. The U.S. government also signaled an implicit public guarantee against financial failures by directing government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), similar to the CMHC, to buy and securitize mortgages for high-risk borrowers.
“In the wake of the recent financial crisis, American taxpayers are now facing an enormous future liability to pay for the government bailout of the financial industry. Not surprisingly, Americans are not happy about this.
“Canadian taxpayers could face a similar liability because our government is so heavily involved in the mortgage insurance market through the CMHC.
“The Canadian mortgage insurance market is dominated by the CMHC because the crown corporation enjoys regulatory advantages not available to private-sector companies. As a result, several private-sector mortgage companies have withdrawn from offering mortgage insurance in Canada in the last few years.”
Reference to this editorial should be plastered on the front page as they often do with other editorials, and then further expanded upon, in depth, throughout the paper and amongst the whole stable of CanWest papers. It is an excellent starting point to a national discussion which would lead to rescuing Canada and its economic system from the morass (and I emphasize “ass”) of the progressives and their disastrous Fabian socialist model.
They could do this instead of, you know, continuing the National Post’s schadenfreude-y (read it and get the -y joke) lament about every progressive’s nemesis, 
Sarah Palin (a page A-16 feature article), about her being popular but of course ever so stupid; and John McCain still being old and ridiculous and losing yet another electoral battle (the only article—a news article —on page A-3, in which we’re informed that “Somewhat ironically, Mr. McCain is now relying on support from his 2008 vice-presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, who has become a hero of sorts to the Tea Party crowd…”).
The only “irony” I see here is that the National Post still doesn’t get it, despite all the help they’re getting from the very facts they report (or chose not to, or chose to bury), every day.
By the way, here’s a link to the excellent report upon which the editorial by Dr. Skinner is based:
Mortgage Finance Reform: Protecting Taxpayers from Liability
Here’s the brief summary from the Fraser Institute.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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