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 Canadian equity portfolio | Vijay Viswanathan | EP13

Director of Research and Canadian equity co-manager, Vijay Viswanathan, discusses potential trade war impacts to the portfolio, Canada’s opportunity set, and dives deeper into holdings in the energy, e-commerce and insurance industries.

Investing with your eyes: CIO insights from South America | Paul Moroz | Ep12

CIO Paul Moroz continues to travel the world doing fundamental research for the global equity and the global small cap strategies. This episode reveals specific observations from his recent research trip to South America and New York City.

Quarterly update | 2Q 2018 | EP11

This episode features insights from the past quarter by Greg Peterson, portfolio manager of Mawer’s balanced and global balanced strategies.

Scuttlebutt and its dramatic effect on long-term investing | John Wilson | EP10

John Wilson, analyst on Mawer’s global small cap equity strategy, defines scuttlebutt and its competitive advantage for long-term investors.

Underweight: Our take on Japan | David Ragan | EP09

David Ragan, portfolio manager of Mawer’s international equity strategies, reveals why the portfolio is—and has always been—underweight in Japan.

Getting in alignment: Why investors need to pay attention to executive compensation | Jeff Mo | EP08

Jeff Mo, portfolio manager of Mawer’s Canadian small cap strategies, discusses the importance of executive compensation to long-term investment performance.

Playing the plan: Mawer's equity philosophy in action | Christian Deckart | EP07

Christian Deckart, Deputy CIO and co-manager of global small cap and global equity strategies, takes us on a journey through the Mawer investment philosophy by walking us through the investment thesis of four of the global small cap strategy’s top 10 holdings.

The competitive advantage of high performing teams | Vijay Viswanathan | EP06

Vijay Viswanathan, Mawer’s Director of Research, on the key characteristics of high performing investment teams.

Supersize me: Province of Alberta goes large and issues first-time benchmark euro-denominated bond | James Redpath | EP05

James Redpath (JR), former Mawer fixed income portfolio manager, answers why the Alberta government issued a benchmark euro-denominated bond—four to five times the average deal size in Canada—and what it may mean for the Canadian debt market.

Quarterly update | 1Q 2018 | EP04

This episode features insights from the past quarter (1Q18) by Greg Peterson, portfolio manager of Mawer’s Balanced and Global Balanced strategies.

Moneyball and automation: introducing "The Lab" | Justin Anderson | EP03

Features the investment insights of Justin Anderson, leader of “The Lab,” where Mawer applies new technologies to garner an investment edge and automation to streamline the investment process.

China observations | Peter Lampert | EP02

Features the investment insights of Peter Lampert, Mawer Emerging Markets and International Equity portfolio manager, from his research trip to China.