Economic double-header: Canadian productivity problems + tariffs in focus

This content-laden session addresses two quite different but equally pressing economic topics: Canadian productivity and the prospect of U.S. tariffs. Canadian productivity has been famously poor in recent years, and underwhelming for much longer. As a starting point, we will investigate a range of acute and structural reasons for the shortfall, including rapid immigration, an expanding public service, inefficient allocation of capital, sub-optimal public policy, and insufficient risk-taking; and then we will explain why weak productivity is a problem and share our outlook for an imminent partial revival and prescriptions for a longer-term, sustained liftoff. On U.S. tariffs, we will try to allay wide-ranging uncertainty by explaining what tariffs are and outlining the likely path forward, punctuated by possible impacts and remedies.

This was recorded on April 4th, 2025. For more tariff updates from Eric, listen to our latest podcast here.  

The role for alternative investments: Where to from here?

Alternative investment allocations have grown substantially over the past decade and now play a prominent role in many institutional portfolios. Embraced for their return enhancement and diversification benefits, alternative investments have delivered on expectations for the most part. However, alternatives have also faced some headwinds in the post-Covid era, including illiquidity risk, higher interest rates and inflation. The significant influx of investor capital also raises questions about future return prospects for certain types of alternatives. In this presentation, we consider the outlook for alternative investments generally, and speculate on how allocations to various types of alternatives might evolve.