Among other things, clearing improves transparency, makes it harder for counterparties to avoid stumping up the right amount of collateral and provides an insurance policy against losses to the non-defaulting party to a trade.
If he is right, and Mr Flaherty's various interventions avoid the collateral damage that would be caused by an actual interest-rate rise, Canada's admirers will have another thing to swoon over.
The shared appreciation feature gives the lender the right to the first, say, 40% of the appreciation of the collateral above the value of the debt over some specified future time period (say five or 10 years).