Last week we attended a retail conference in Toronto which included the Who’s Who of Canadian ‘bricks and mortar’ retail. The first question the moderator asked of each panelist was whether there were any signs of a slow-down at the retail level or a shift in consumer spending patterns that might signal some caution. They all answered no. So take that with a grain of salt but over all the years we have been analyzing companies, we have found that the boots on the ground research is often the best research. We mention this notwithstanding the negative rhetoric regarding slowing global growth, a complete U-turn in US monetary policy and a yield curve inversion between the 10 year Treasury bond and the three-month Treasury bills which can be a leading indicator of an economic downturn.