Mark Perry at The American looks at banking and mortgages in Canada, and examines the reasons why Canada suffered no banking failures in the recent economic crisis. The Canadian banking industry was even profitable in 2008! Clearly, there are some things to be learned here. High on the list is stricter lending standards and a government policy of subsidizing low cost rental housing instead of pushing home ownership, with the result that Canada has seen no rise in their level of foreclosures. I hope the bureaucrats in Washington are paying attention, but since their policies helped drive the recent housing collapse and wave of bank bailouts and failures, I expect little action on their part.