Is it just me? Or am I living in Comaville.

International headlines are blaring with dire news of a global sell-off and international market melt-down brought on by the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Thousands in the US are losing their houses and thousands more will do so in the next six months. Jobs will be lost forestry, manufacturing and financial services. Credit bombs are going off and money is drying up. There are runs on banks. Canadian banks are vulnerable. Pensions are vulnerable. The R-word looms.

And in my sleepy little part of the world, the local CBC radio station is doing a friendly interview with a mortgage broker pushing the benefits of super-long term 40-year mortgages.

AS IF NONE OF THIS IS HAPPENING?

“It’s every Canadian’s dream to own a home,” the broker says without a hint of irony in his voice. “Longer pay-down periods give Canadians the house they need at prices they can afford. Most people are not concerned with paying down their mortgage. The house value will increase.”

A satirical sketch could not have done this better.

No, no, no it’s got nothing to do with the sub prime troubles they’re having in the US, the mortgage broker says smugly. Here in Canada we’re more conservative. We don’t have sub primes.

Excuse me? Trouble they are having? Has the man looked at the TSX in Toronto? Those losses belong to Canadians with investments in those sub prime mortgages, whether they know it or not.

But it’s the CBC* that holds the bag here. Not only are they NOT interpreting this whole mess for local listeners, they are feeding us the same mortgage-broker junk that got us into this mess in the first place.

To air this interview this morning shows a spectacular lack of judgment on the part of the CBC producers, to say nothing of bad timing.

I’m not into spreading doom. Business and trade go through cycles and this credit crunch won’t last forever. But it is serious, and if the local CBC wants to be taken seriously, it should document this sub prime mortgage crisis credibly. Providing platforms for mortgage brokers to sell bigger houses at lower monthly prices is not a credible way to do this.

Or maybe it is just me. Maybe I’m the one in the coma. Maybe none of this is happening in this little part of the world and it will all just go away. I’d really like to be wrong about this rant. So please tell me I am.

*BTW, I’m a supporter of a strong CBC and of public broadcasting but they do occasionally require a little friendly-fire criticism from their supporters.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 5:54 am and is filed under CBC Radio, Canada. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.