Paul O'Leary's Blog

While some Americans may refer to Canada as the 51st state, in the mortgage industry the American's hardly have anything in common with our northern neighbor. This article mentions that 30 year mortgages are quite uncommon and from what I understand, 5 and 7 year mortgages are much more common. Unlike the US, Canadian banks cannot resell mortgages and simply service the loan, like it is done in the US. So while the Americans are testing out those 40 and 50 year loans, the Canadians are testing out 30 year loans.

Russia's President made headlines today around the world today. Rather than speaking on topics such as Iran, gas supplies to Europe, and nuclear issues, he devoted a good portion of his speech to the declining population of Russia and his proposed solution. Russia has experienced a marked decline in population since the changes of 1989. He is proposing a larger subsidy for 1st born children and now a subsidy for a second child. This would hopefully counter the effects of immigration(which was very limited prior to 1989) and the declining birthrate. There are a few interesting graphs in this article. It's worth a look if you're not aleady registerd.