Rising Debt and its Potential Consequences: Canada’s New Normal?

We need to understand where we are in the debt super cycle to inform our investment decision making.

Artificial Intelligence: The Return of The Centaurs

Recent AI breakthroughs are underscoring the power of the centaur model—humans + machines—creating something more potent than either model operating independently.

The Case for Non-Predictive Decision Making

In our view, market participants systematically underestimate the importance of vulnerabilities while correspondingly overestimating the importance of triggers. Why?

Inflation’s One-Two Punch

It’s inflation’s second punch that can deliver a blow that investors may not be expecting.

‘Twas the week before Christmas

'Twas the week before Christmas, thus time to review—the economic story of 2022.

Beware the linearity bias

We tend to think of our world in linear terms, where the output of a system is proportional and directly correlated to its inputs.

The quality conundrum

The conundrum for investors these days is the trade-off between the value of quality and price to pay for it. 

Be aware, but don’t despair!

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

~Mark Twain

'Twas the week before Christmas

‘Twas the week before Christmas, so let's have some fun. Mawer recaps the main themes of 2021.

Prepare don't predict

How an engineering principle can improve investment risk management.

On modern monetary theory

We explore the evolution of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and the notable economic ideas on which it is based. We highlight some notable criticisms and discuss implications of MMT for economic policy and financial markets. Our purpose is less focused on opining whether MMT is fundamentally sound, but rather aimed at understanding its development and how the ground may shift if indeed MMT-based policies are more widely embraced.

Where I’m seeing value in emerging markets

I’ve been revisiting Philip Fisher’s Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits recently. Scanning the opportunity set in emerging markets, I’ve been trying to imagine what Fisher would have made of the current investment landscape.

'Twas the week before Christmas

‘Twas the week before Christmas, (and you know it’s true), COVID looms large in our annual review.

Playing the plan: Mawer’s U.S. equity portfolio | EP43

U.S. equity co-manager, Colin Wong, discusses the big picture backdrop (interest rates, U.S.-China trade war) and then dives deep into the investment thesis behind Microsoft, and A.O. Smith.

Making a difference: Impact investing | EP42

Calgary Foundation Board and Impact Investing Committee Chair, Bob Gibson, and Director, Investments, Lauren Frosst, discuss the Foundation’s definition of impact investing, why the foundation became involved, and how they got started.

Playing the plan: Mawer’s international equity portfolio | EP41

Lead portfolio manager, David Ragan, discusses some big picture risks (Brexit and U.S.-China trade wars) and then dives deep into the investment thesis behind LVMH and Bunzl. 

Lessons from 33 years of investing | EP40

Investing legend Martin Ferguson, pioneer of the award winning Mawer Canadian small cap strategy, shares the lessons he learned over his 33 year career.

Trader talk: Every BEEP matters | EP39

Equity trader, Jeff Wilson, delves into the in-house “B-E-E-P” framework the trading team has built: Best Execution, Education, and Process.

Quarterly update | 2Q 2019 | EP38

Featuring insights from the second quarter from Balanced and Global Balanced Fund co-manager and Asset Mix Chair, Greg Peterson.

Playing the plan: Mawer’s global equity portfolio | EP37

Deputy CIO, Christian Deckart, discusses everything from big picture risks to company specifics on this global equity portfolio episode.

Mawer Insight: Q&A with CIO | EP36

CIO, Paul Moroz, answers clients’ questions about the current economic environment and how Mawer is positioning its portfolios.

Deep dive: The U.S. healthcare industry | EP35

Equity analyst and previous biomedical researcher, Amit Shah, discusses the healthcare industry in the U.S.

Playing the plan: Mawer’s Canadian small cap portfolio | EP34

Lead manager Jeff Mo discusses the psychology that drove the Canadian economy over the past 6 months, the correlation between Canadian and emerging markets equities, and what a holding “meeting our expectations” means at Mawer.

Quarterly update | 1Q 2019 | EP33

Featuring insights from the first quarter from Balanced and Global Balanced Fund co-manager and Asset Mix Chair, Greg Peterson.

Playing the plan: Mawer’s Canadian equity portfolio | EP32

Director of Research and Canadian equity lead manager Vijay Viswanathan discusses the overall Canadian economy, the problem with investing in natural gas and gold, and the amount of foreign exposure in the portfolio.