Our team has been supporting the Ottawa International Writer’s Festival for several years. Its focus in Ottawa is a children’s literacy program – the Republic of Childhood. This project celebrates the power of literacy and creativity in children from every demographic group in Canada, with a particular emphasis on children from First Nations communities, at risk populations, new Canadians and immigrants. https://writersfestival.org/
On October 25th, during this year’s festival, our team met author Ian Rankin at a lunch where he discussed his latest work ”In a House of Lies”. Ian Rankin is a prolific Scottish author who focuses on detective and mysteries as his literary genre. He is best known for his Inspector Rebus novels. Ian Rankin’s books immortalized a basic Edinburgh pub, the Oxford Bar, where tourists join locals for real ale and lunches.
https://podcast-a.akamaihd.net/mp3/podcasts/ottallinaday-te0WIPxM-20181025.mp3
Our very own Dawn Morewood and husband Arthur recently visited this famous Scottish pub (see attached photo). Dawn was fortunate to stop in at the pub made famous by Ian Rankin, while attending a due diligence conference hosted in Scotland by one of our international money managers, Walter Scott. https://www.walterscott.com/
The Walter Scott Conference looked at the challenges and opportunities of portfolio management. The research team at Walter Scott support our view that we can expect lower equity returns going forward. The current and prospective real interest rates are low and their long-run data suggests that the historic average for equity risk premium of 4.3% will not be enjoyed in the future. The world will likely see an equity risk premium of 3.5%. Add to that inflation for a real rate of return of 4 to 5%. They, too, expect stocks to outperform bonds by a large margin, therefore we agree that the long-run attractiveness of equities remains undiminished.
From literacy to pubs to money management, Scotland was the theme for October!