For any community you live in, one of the things you like to see is companies making their headquarters or making their presence in your community. Ideally, that means people need to work in the location which means people will need to live in the area buying homes, renting places and all the activity which surrounds companies expanding. This is a good thing and can make where you live more livable.

In an article by Hyunjoo Jin of Reuters, Samsung Electronics which is headquartered in South Korea, had made its headquarters in the US in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey with other operations centered in Texas. The company has many operations and invariably one of more operations are doing very well.

All companies can locate wherever they wish to, but the odd part is Samsung Electronics America (SEA) settled into the New Jersey location less than a year ago, employing 1,200 workers. Recently SEA is downsizing 739 roles and moving operations to Plano, Texas.

Samsung’s other division is making chips and making chips has sent profits up 19 fold on strong AI-driven chip demand. Samsung in investing hundreds of billions of dollars on new chip plants.

The mobile division is expected to post its first ever loss as it grapples with competition from Apple. Chinese competition such as TCL and Hisense are challenging Samsung in TV and home appliances.

Samsung has joined other companies such as Tesla and Oracle moving to Texas known for lower taxes and business friendly environment. Samsung had 11.770 employees in the US at the end of 2025.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while it is wonderful to get a headquarters in the area and perhaps that is one of the reasons to consider investing in the company, the reality is companies make decisions and sometimes it affects people and allocating less resources to formerly key divisions. As an investor you like the company made the tough decision, if the company was leaving the area where you are from, you have mixed feelings.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

If you are similar to most people, somewhere near where you lived a railroad passed. It may or may not stopped but the trains passed nearby and at some hours during the day you could hear the whistle, or the training is coming or going across a road crossing.

The US is blessed to have a long coastline on both sides of the country, and when the country was being founded people came by ship. Goods moved up and down the coast on ships and ships had a monopoly of the movement of goods and people. Eventually people started moving inland and the rivers only went so far, it was long journey to have goods such as grains moved to point to go to the river. With the invention of the industrial revolution, it also included a steam engine and rail tracks. This set up a boom in railway building because it was less expensive and faster to move goods by rail.

In America, the railway financing and building boom until railways were consolidated to larger and profitable lines. There are many stories about how the consolidation happened and understand securities laws were much looser then. The larger lines eventually emerged, and they had a monopoly on the movement of goods and people. Although cars were invented and Henry Ford made them affordable, the roads were not that good. It was not until President Eisenhower was elected and one of the things he did not like was it took military vehicles weeks to cross the US. Among the many bills he passed, the building of the interstate highways or I highways was under his leadership.

The good news was trucks that took weeks to cross the US could now do it days. The growth of the trucking industry meant that the railroads had competition. The interstates also meant people had choices and they choose to travel in cars or not on railroads. The passenger service became unprofitable, and the railway companies offloaded them to the government or Amtrak.

In terms of freight, it is less expensive to move bulk commodities on trains so they will always have a monopoly for those items. However, the companies ensure they have the lowest rates as possible. One method to see how the railroad companies are doing is examining tonnage of bulk commodities – grain, coal, oil, timber, etc. For many years, how railroads run did not change, even though the competition did. For decades, freight trains did not run on schedules. The trains departed with the customer’s load showed for shipment.

In a book called Railroader – Hunter Harrison written by Howard Green, published by Page Two Books, Vancouver, BC, 2018, changes were made to the operations of railroads with what is called Precision Scheduled Railroading.

Hunter Harrison over his railroading career rose to become CEO of 4 railroad companies Illinois Central, CN, CP (now called CPKC) and CSX. In all those companies, he improved profitability and share price of the companies.

His system evolved to Precision Scheduled Railroading and the just of it is Railroads are very capital intensive. Every $1.00 of rail revenuer requires $2.50 in net property, plant and taxes. Therefore, capital decisions must be made very carefully. In addition, capital decisions made will have a long life, if you buy a locomotive, expect to have it around for 40 years.

Few things bothered Mr. Hunter mode than underutilized assets. If an asset is not being used, it is a liability because of the costs of owning it. Railroads only make money when cars are moving. Track is a railroad’s most expensive physical asset. Track has a 40 year life, so why should we lay track just to have cars sit idle? In 2005, one mile of track was used to store about 100 cars, cost $1 million. If you moved cars instead of stored cars, you save $1 million. The more efficient the operation, the fewer assets it needed.

What if dwell times in yards or railway cares were cut to 8 or 12 hours instead of 24? What if customers unloaded faster so their cars were there for half the time? What if average velocity went from 25 to 30 miles a hour? Now we are getting more cycles from the same equipment, and a thousand little things equal a lot of money.

When Mr. Hunter came to CN. they had 200,000 O&D (originating and destination points), but 5% of those 200,000 account for 80% of the traffic volume. Optimize that 80% and the other 20% takes care of itself. This led to Operating Ratios (OR) fell from 89% to the 50’s and profits increased.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, railroads typically pay dividends because they have a monopoly on bulk commodities, however it does not mean all railroads were run well and were efficient. It takes a lot of change to drive efficiencies and new way of thinking about assets into the system. If you own stock when Mr. Hunter was CEO, your wealth went up, which is why all railroads implemented the Precision Scheduled Railroad system – how does the company look at its assets?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When you see the President coming from a walkway of a plane, it is a Boeing aircraft. Over the past weeks, we have all learned it is not your typical Boeing aircraft because it needs to have multiple systems designed to protect the President when he is flying.

In an article from Reuters, Boeing announced it will be delivering 2 new Air Force Ones in 2028. The existing planes entered service in 1990, however the planes were supposed to been delivered. The cost of the planes has gone up from $3.9 billion in 2018 to over $5 billion in 2026.

In addition, at the Farnborough Airshow in the UK, Boeing announced multiple contracts for planes to China, Uganda Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Riyadh Air and others. Over the years, the Farnborough Airshow is where a number of contracts are signed and released to the public. (every industry has their version of the most important trade event, for your investments, it is important to know what the event is and when it happens).

Being believes global commercial fleet will top 50,000 airplanes in 20 years which is a doubling of passenger traffic. In dollar terms this is $4.9 trillion commercail aviation support.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, for manufacturers the order book is important and for Boeing which along with Airbus has a duopoly in the world of air passenger manufacturing, the future looks good. As long as they are able to execute and fly safely, profits should flow into the company.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

If you are travelling in the summer, perhaps to a different city, instead of taking a taxi you may have used an app and called for an Uber for a ride. That company also is in the food delivery business.

In an article by Miranda Murray of Reuters, Uber Technologies launched a takeover bid to buy Delivery Hero based in Germany for $14.8 billion. If it successful, the company would create be the largest food delivery group outside of China.

Delivery Hero has operations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Dara Khosrowshahi, said the 2 companies would create a platform of 99 countries with a combined pro-forma gross merchandise value (GMV) of $236 billion. This doubles where Uber offers mobility and delivery services,

The biggest competition in China is Meituan which did $346.5 billion in business. Among the other competition is Just Eats owned by Danish group, Prosus and US rival Door Dash.

Delivery Hero has agreed to sell part of the business covering 14 markets to investment firm to SSW Partners for $2.25 billion.

Delivery Hero’s major shareholder Prosus agreed to sell its 17% stake, along with management agreed to sell their shares or do not expect a competing bids.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every industry has competition but there are always major players and to be a major player means some companies need to become large to attempt to control prices and margins. Once they can do that, it means shareholders should be rewarded for a long time.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Governments own property and assets and it is normal for government to be in the business, often times it is because the private sector tends to concentrate on those who have or access to wealth, while the government has to cater to everyone regardless of wealth. Policies are set and if the government is a participant, it can understand the costs and margins business needs to run their businesses. Is it good for the people? good for shareholders? mixture of both? Sometimes governments end up with assets when the private market decides not to be in the business. For example: transit systems were originally privately owned, but the private interests were primarily interested in allowing people access to their lands to be developed. Once the lands were developed there was less interest in running the transit system or eventually it became a public asset.

In an article from Reuters, India’s federal government and state run Life Insurance Corp of India are selling a combined 60.7% state in IDBI Bank. At present the Indian government owns 45.58% and LIC owns 49.24%. Similar to a private equity company, the government has a number or expectations of a number to sell at.

The process has gone through a number of bids and for the government they want to sell, but at the right price. The third revised bids were led by Fairfax Financial Holdings and Emirates NBD.

India has a population of over a billion, with a growing middle-income level and NBD acquired a state in private lender RBI for $3 billion. A Japanese company, MUFG bought a 20% stake in Shriram Finance for $4.4 billion.

IDBI’s stake sale process started in 2022 and has been a slower process because of regulatory and procedural approvals.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all private companies believe that some government assets are worth buying because private sector cost controls and efficiency levels can be applied to make money for the acquisition. And it is true, if the government owns a stake it tries to appeal to a wide segment of the market, private sector tends to focus on areas where there is growth and higher margins to be found. What is consider good and worthwhile in the government sector is not the same under a private sector viewpoint. Often times if the government is selling, the assets are worth investigating and bidding on.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

If you are similar to me, you love a good story, particularly when the company continues to make profits to make dividends. The company has executed on its game plans and in a tough marketplace continues to earn profits, which is a very good thing to be able to do. At some point, you may read or learn one of the reasons they are doing well is at some point the playing field was a little uneven. You may not have been born at that stage, but some companies had an unfair advantage, and they had the ability to take advantage and run with it. This does not mean you sell your holdings, just understand there was an unfair playing field in the past. Today the competition from many sources means the company has to bring its game day focus everyday of the year.

In a book called High-Risers written by Ben Austen, published by HarperCollins, NY, 2018, the author focuses on a high- rise complex in Chicago called the Cabrini-Green. The location of the complex is just north of downtown Chicago, and at the time of the building of the high-rises, it replaced many houses that were rundown and not modern or lack of modern sanitation. The people had a roof over their heads, but it was not safe, there were many fires and people died. Almost anything done to replace it would have been better.

The City of Chicago replaced the neighborhood with high-rises with plenty of park space for kids to play. They had a long waiting list of people whom they vetted to move in. The rents were stabilized and thanks to federal programs connected to rent gear to income which means the residents would not pay more than 30% of their income to rents. Relative to their units in which many were housed, it was a good decision to move into the complex. In the beginning most of the people worked, they were on the low-wage scale, but they worked in retail, manufacturing places that were not far from the complex.

Nowadays people talk about red states and blue states, Illinois is a blue state. Chicago has traditionally been a segregated community. African Americans moved from the south to the north, where Jim Crow rules did not apply and jobs were plentiful, however they tended to move to the Black Belt of the city. In Chicago it meant south of downtown.

During the 1940’s, the vacancy rate in Chicago was less than 1%. White neighborhoods established racial covenants, bylaws that barred homeowners from selling to African Americans. At one point 85% of Chicago was covered by these restrictions. After the US Supreme Court, declared the covenants illegal, assaults on blacks and firebombing homes proved to keep the status quo in place.

The federal government deemed existing black neighborhoods too risky for insured mortgages, coloring them red on maps. The process was known as redlining, and it meant African Americans could rarely purchase property in their own communities. If you understand how rent-to-own companies make their money, people buy things they need, but if they fall behind, the company repossesses the stuff. The only loans in the African American neighborhoods were rent-to-own and if they fell behind, the house was sold off and the person had nothing. The affect was in most households, much of the wealth that is passed down is from real estate, black families own little real estate to pass down.

In black neighborhood, rents were high and properties were divided into many kitchenettes, or small space for families.

The most virulent opposition in public hearing in Chicago came from working-income families who felt trapped in the radically changing city. Realtors used shady blockbusting tactics, moving a black family into an area, then drumming up fears about decreasing property values, your daughters are at risk, and a growing threat of crime. Why? realtors were buying property on the cheap to sell to developers to build high-rises.

Public housing residents in Chicago in 1960, rent for a 3-bedroom started at $41 a month and went up $1 for every $55 more a tenant earn annually, up to a maximum of $110 or 30% of income. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, more people on welfare came into public housing which meant the Chicago Housing Authority ran deficits. At the same time, federal funding was scaled back. The result a repair backlogged started and then the development spiraled downwards, to a point Cabrini-Green was one of the worst housing projects and the best solution was to tear it down and start again.

The complex was eventually torn down and has been replaced by middle income and luxury towers, due to its closeness to downtown.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, stories are wonderful, but often the history changes the narrative of why the world exists that way that it does. This does not mean you should change your investment strategy, but it does mean that often there are often reasons that are slightly different than the company history of why it succeeded and others did not. Sometimes those reasons are related to government policies, sometimes they are related to history being watered down, sometimes there are other reasons. In the meantime, for a company in this age to consistently earn profits it is doing many things correctly.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

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In every industry there is competition or the threat of competition. It may not be here today, but depending on costs and scarcity, it could be just around the corner.

In an article from Reuters, fusion reactors, which are in the experimental stage, jam light atoms such as hydrogen together under extreme heat and pressure to produce large amounts of energy without releasing greenhouse gases or creating long-lasting nuclear waste. It is a possible solution for relatively inexpensive energy.

According to the Washington based Fusion Industry Association (FIA) total investments since 2021 hit $14.2 billion with $4.48 billion in the first 6 months of 2026.

There are 56 private companies involved in the FIA and they are hoping to produce power in the early 2030s. Andrew Holland FIA’s chief executive believes the report shows the industry is on the path to commercialization. The companies depend on a mixture of private and government research and development.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if and when the technical problems are worked on and they have some large barriers before generated electricity at prices consumers and business desire, then they can be seen as a normal utility economics with large front end costs but once generating electricity the cost fall dramatically and profits can be seen.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

For the past couple of months, one of the lovely things about the weather is the sun shines. If you think about Africa most of the places you think of the sun shing every day and a logical step would be they need more solar polar to generate electricity.

In an article by Allan Olingo of the Associated Press, somebody has thought about this is former New York City Mayor and founder of Bloomberg News, Michael R Bloomberg. He is also the UN Secretary General Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions. It helps he had the ability to donate $285 million through the Bloomberg Philanthropies to strengthen clean energy industries in emerging and developing countries.

There are 600 million people in Africa and many do not are not connected to the grid or pay utility bills. Rather than paying to put up more solar panels, Mr. Bloomberg will invest in strengthening market design, regulatory capacity, technical expertise and industry institutions, areas viewed as essential for attracting private investment and accelerating use of renewable energy.

If you think about the North American companies there is a mixture of private and public utilities that generate electricity to put on the grid and that is distributed to every household for a fee. There is a state regulatory agency to ensure the companies spend money to keep the grid up to day and raise fees for service. The regulatory agency writes the policies that if someone puts up solar panels, the electricity can flow into the grid, and they can receive a monetary reward. The utilities can go the bond market to raise money to build the infrastructure to ensure the grid keeps meeting the demands of consumers and industry.

In Africa, there is weak market design, limited grid planning, slow permitting processes and fragmented regulatory systems.

If you think about Africa, you likely think about sunny days, with the Bloomberg initiative perhaps scaling up the projects will be possible and the systems in North America will be similar to the systems in Africa.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, many of these companies have a large infrastructure that has been built up and can profitably be accessed. Sometimes governments help pay for the infrastructure, but it is the private sector that benefits the most and that can translate to profitability and paying dividends.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When you think about President Trump, one of the things on top of the list will not be he is a great administrator of government. If you read or listen to people who try to understand what goes on with the President, he seems more interested in “vanity” projects that proper functioning of government. Some people are big picture folks, some are very detail oriented, and there is a lot in between, but President Trump seems to focus on furnishings of the White House and a small part of Washington, DC. Unfortunately for the President, there are large swaths of the City of Washington that could use his “developer” mindset.

In an article by Clyde Russell of Reuters, one of the clever ways to deal with the President Trump is to make up acronyms using Mexican food.

TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out – reflects President Trump to escalate a situation before retreating once the economic and political costs became too heavy.

EMPANDA – Everyone Makes Promises And Nobody Actually Delivers Anything – used to describe countries make outrageous promise (invest trillions of dollars) and achievable trade promises in the hope of avoiding the worst of Trump’s tariffs. (the trade deficit is still going up, where is the domestic manufacturing that the President talks about?)

NACHO – Not A Chance Hormuz Opens – after the US started the war with Iran, the Iranian military shut down the Strait of Hormuz and no one knows if it is open or not? certainly the shipping traffic is down and far from where it was before the war started.

TAMALES – Trump Always Messes Around, Leaves Everything Shafted. The sector most affected is commodity trade. The trade disruptions have led to supply chain disruptions which led to higher prices which increased inflation. The danger is the world always, once in a blue moon, something actually works.

If there is a consistent pattern to President Trump’s presidency, it is he creates volatility and unintended consequences through policies and actions that largely fail to achieve their stated goals.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are all types of CEOs, some promise disruptions and one could argue that is what is needed, but after they leave the next CEO all they have to do is promise competence and normalcy. The longer you live, the more you will see what happens after the person leaves.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.