Canada needs an agency to handle real estate bubbles + MORE Aug 27th

The wild swings in stock markets over the last week have raised concerns about another global downturn. Is the U.S. economy resilient enough to withstand the market uncertainty? Does America’s central bank have any tools left to deal with a downturn should things worsen? In the eyes of Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist at Columbia University, the difficulties facing the U.S. now have their roots in the bad decisions officials made in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. In a preview of an interview with Stiglitz set to be published in the next issue of Maclean’s, the economist discusses why he’s concerned by the spreading panic.
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Q: We’d started to see some signs of recovery in the U.S. economy. Does this stock market turmoil pose a threat to that?
A: First I’d say it’s not a strong recovery. The crisis was 2008, we’re now in 2015—eight years later after the recession and the gap between where we would have been and where we are is huge and not closing…

Despite a shrinking economy and low oil prices, two of Canada’s big banks released strong financial reports this week

Toronto-Dominion says strong growth from its retail financial services in Canada and the United States and its wholesale banking arm combined to drive up its third-quarter net profit by 7.5 per cent to $2.266 billion.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp.’s computer snafu in calculating the prices of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds could extend into the weekend, prolonging confusion over the price of recent trades and any potential compensation owed.

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One of Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz’s deputies spoke about housing this week. Lawrence Schembri was disarmingly calm while tackling a subject that can easily lead to hysterics. There was no mention of bubbles or irrational exuberance, suggesting the central bank continues to believe that the situation is under control.
There are those who think otherwise. But Schembri’s speech showed that the Bank of Canada remains more concerned about the 18% plunge in Canadian commodity prices this year than the 10% jump in the average national resale price of homes since 2013.
Here’s one reason why:

The red line is the annualized growth rate of household credit since 2007. The dark vertical lines represent the imposition of measures meant to dissuade riskier borrowers from buying homes, such as the narrowing of the amortization period for an insured mortgage to 25 years from 40 years…