text: Canada's problem (same as many Western nations) is that it is caught in a debt trap. It is unable to raise interest rates because of the catastrophic harm it would do to the economy and government sovereign debt. 
  
  This vulnerable position, in the current context of financialization and rapid-fire capital flows across borders, exposes Canada to speculators and 'vultures' looking to place bets on where the economy will go. It is a dicey situation because the country becomes a plaything for the markets and loses control of its destiny, until one day it has an epic crisis and the IMF steps in (think Iceland etc.).