Flaherty pressures banks to lend

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The Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tried to pressure Canadian banks to lend to both businesses and consumers last month and will hold meetings with the CEOs of big Canadian banks this month to discuss credit availability.

Does this sound familiar to you? Wasn't that what happened down in the US a few years ago when the Congress pressured US banks to extend credit to borrowers with poor credit in attempt to put everybody in a home even if they would never be able to pay for it?

One thing that politicians do not understand is that Canadian consumers are up to their eyeballs in debt, and they cannot take on more debt.