I would say two things. One is that, yes, some of our macroeconomic statistics look good, like debt-to-GDP, relative to those of our peers. The U.S., of course, can run much larger deficits because the U.S. dollar is the de facto global currency. It has what's sometimes called this exorbitant privilege. That's what Charles De Gaulle called it.
Having said that, I would point out that at the beginning of the 20th century, we had the same per capita income as the United States. Now we're at three-quarters. I have to check the exact date, but in the early nineties or mid-eighties, we were at around 90%, and we've been going down. I would ask a question in return. If we're doing so well, why are we falling so far behind the Americans?
Again, I'm not a fan of QE. I think we were storing up major trouble. I said this in the fall of 2021, when most of the commentators were saying, “Hooray. The Bank of Canada is doing the right thing.” I said that if you monetize massive fiscal deficits through QE and have forward guidance and all of the rest of the unconventional policies, you're going to store up an inflation crisis when things get back to normal, and that crisis occurred.
Now we're in another crisis because interest rates are so high and they're going to stay high. My sense is that the bank woke up too late. That's my opinion. That's not the government's fault; I think the bank should have begun tightening policy sooner than it did.
Tell someone who has to refinance their mortgage and maybe sell their home that we're doing well. I'm not saying Canada is broken, but certainly if we compare ourselves to the U.S.—throughout history, our comparison has been to the U.S.—why are we faring so poorly compared to our friends to the south? By the way, this is even when they haven't had the best policy, in my opinion, but productivity growth in the U.S. has been strong.
As you said, you're a follower of Hayek. In the end, it comes down to the supply side. Tinkering with monetary and fiscal policy, regulation and targeted subsidies and picking winners are, in the long run, the wrong way to go. Have sensible, tight and sound money, bring down the deficit, run surpluses to build a stock for the future and pare down excessive regulation. This is standard, textbook Milton Friedman and Hayek stuff.