Our recommendations for what to eat, read, watch, and listen to this weekend.

Columbia Business School professor and economist Brett House joined us on Free Lunch this week to explain what was behind the Bank of Canada’s latest decision to raise interest rates, and how they’re thinking about the economic picture moving forward.

Riding the comeback wave this year are cargo pants, vinyl records and… cruises? 

In addition to adding oat milk and Aperol Spritzes to their in-flight menu, Air Canada is making moves to add more sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Driving the news: The nation’s largest airline entered an agreement with SAF producer Air Company to use its unique “power-to-liquid" aviation fuel.

The Mounties appear on the verge of a major shakeup—and no, it doesn’t involve ditching the iconic Red Serge jackets and campaign hats. 

Driving the news: The city of Surrey was ordered by BC’s Solicitor-General to move forward with a plan to end RCMP policing and establish a municipal police force instead.

Google is taking a break from its fight with Canadian publishers to showcase its brand-new toy for journalists: An AI helper.

Driving the news: Google is pitching major news publishers like The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal on a new generative AI tool called Genesis that it says can produce news articles.

Two of the year’s biggest films, Oppenheimer (about the father of the atomic bomb) and Barbie (about, well, Barbie), are out in theatres and making for an unlikely double feature.

Driving the news: Cineplex reported that, as of Wednesday, 60,000 Canadians had bought advanced tickets for both films, with 65% of buyers planning to watch them on the same day.  

Large Language Models like ChatGPT have been used to write everything from wedding vows to fragments of long-lost plays by Shakespeare. And soon, banks may even be using them to write your financial plan. 

Driving the news: Global names in financial planning, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, are experimenting with ways to use Large Language Models in the advice they give clients. 

Who’s leading the return-to-office resistance? It’s not ‘entitled’ millennials, but their bosses. 

Driving the news: Employees earning over US$150,000 represent the largest share of the workforce that prefers to work from home, per McKinsey. After all, it’s tough to give up taking calls from the lakehouse, sneaking a midday workout, or running errands between meetings. 

At the age of 156, Canada is going through a rebellious phase. 

Driving the news: Canada is one of just five OECD nations that refused to agree to extend a freeze on implementing a new digital services tax (DST) on big tech firms. The move puts it on a collision course with the US, which spearheaded the proposed measure

It may have initially led to anger, disgust, and even cries of hypocrisy, but Netflix’s move to crack down on password sharing is (literally) paying off.  

What happened: Netflix gained 5.9 million subscribers last quarter (three times what analysts expected) as friends, family members, and exes around the world were bounced from accounts they had been sneakily logged into, forcing them to set up their own.

After years of losing talent to the US (a phenomenon also known as the ‘brain drain’), Canada is now looking to get revenge and poach tech workers from the US.

Driving the news: A pilot program aimed at bringing in H-1B visa holders currently living in the US reached its cap of 10,000 applications after being open for just two days.

Temperatures are still hot, but at least inflation is cooling. 

What happened: Canada's annual inflation rate dropped to a 27-month low of 2.8% in June, closing in on the Bank of Canada’s headline inflation target of 2%. The bank still expects that closing the gap could take another two years, or in other words, by mid-2025.  

Tired of being an afterthought in the AI race, Meta just took a big swing to get ahead. 

What happened: Meta is granting open-source access to LLaMA 2, the large language model that powers its AI technology, making it freely available to copy, change, and be used for research and commercial purposes.

Your bank account could be getting a helpful boost from the federal government this month as carbon price rebates roll out to more provinces. 

Driving the news: Canadians in Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island are now eligible for Climate Action Incentive Payments (AKA: the CAIP or carbon price rebate) as of July 1st. 

Nike is calling it quits on a 20-year relationship with Hockey Canada.

What happened: Nike has permanently ended its sponsorship of Hockey Canada. The organization is still trying to save its reputation (and bank balance) following blowback from corporations and fans over its mishandling of a sexual assault scandal last year. 

If you ask US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the debt problems facing low-income countries are a problem for the global economy. 

What happened: The world’s wealthiest countries are reportedly dragging their feet on restructuring the mounting debt load they’re owed by low-income countries, per Reuters.  

As Canadian wildfires place millions of Americans under air quality advisories again this week, get ready for our southern neighbours to get mad at us all over again. 

What happened: Per CNN, about 70 million people from New York to Montana could be under air quality advisories as Canadian wildfires spread toward the border. On Sunday, the Canadian military was deployed in BC to help local authorities fight roughly 380 fires. 

Companies may be cutting back on employee perks, but top executives have been a notable exception. 

Driving the news: Corporate spending on private jets was up for a second straight year in 2022, hitting US$41.3 million across S&P500 companies, the highest level in at least 10 years. 

Somewhere Dolly Parton must be celebrating because the 9-to-5 could be history, new data suggests.

Driving the news: Research published by Microsoft shows that a growing number of employees are clocking out a bit early before logging back on to get some work done before bed, shaking up the traditional 9-to-5 workday.