Flaherty has been typical of global financial policy makers over the past 8 years: add debt and stir, then exit back to the private sector to sell your insider knowledge.
I will always remember Mr. Flaherty for his cheerful announcement in 2006 that the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Company under his watch would be underwriting zero-down, 40 year amortization mortgages even while the US housing market was already in the early stages of imploding from similar government-backed policies. Already high, Canadian realty prices soared into the stratosphere since 2006, even as Flaherty repeatedly backtracked and introduced a series of slow moving measures to tighten the mortgage market. To little avail: in 2014 Canada holds the distinction of having the most over-valuated housing market in the world. Like former BOC head Mark Carney, Flaherty is wise to go before the bubble bursts I suppose…See: 10 charts that sum up the Flaherty years
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