You are where you are located for a reason and in reality, there are other choices. In every industry, there are alternatives and you always must consider them. This is more true in the services business because as COVID lock downs showed with a laptop, you can do business from anywhere. That being said, it is good to have a home base and do all the things that people do at the place they consider home.

In an article by James Griffiths of Reuters, one of the fallouts from the war between the US and Iran was that Iran has shot missiles and drones to other countries around it, even though technically they were not part of the aggression. The countries had various views about Iran, but their military infrastructure was not part of the US and Israel bombing, however Iran shot missiles because all the countries had close ties with the US. One of the little-known facts is since the 1970’s the US dollar has been the currency of choice for OPEC to receive and invest in. The oil economies of the Middle East prop up the US dollar, so the effect of bigger deficits is lessened, relative to other countries in the world. Iran was trying to hurt the US dollar which would have the effect, investors would have to pay attention to the US deficits and is it going down?

With low taxes, sunny weather and a seemingly endless supply of luxury properties, Dubai has long presented itself as a haven for the global elite. The UAE city has seen its population of millionaires grow 102% in the past decade, according to research by Henley & Partners to 81,200.

Jim Krane, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, told CNBC Dubai’s economic model is based on expatriate residents providing the brains, brawn and investment capital. You need stability and security to bring in smart foreigners. To keep them, you need the infrastructure and Dubai has evolved to the playground of the Middle East which is the reason why their airline Emirates had more flights into Dubai making it the busiest airport in the world. With all the oil money, Dubai had reasons for tourists to come to the city. The infrastructure improvements brought in people from all the world to do the construction. All of the activity is based on being a safe and secure location, at the moment according to the Financial Times 10 to 15% of British nationals have left Dubai.

Hong Kong used to offer the same choices as Dubai, Hong Kong offered easy access to China and other Asian markets without the risks, legal and otherwise of doing business in them directly.

Drew Bernstein, a managing partner at tax and accounting firm MBP Global, said capital is moving from Dubai to Hong Kong and Singapore. Hong Kong’s challenge is that it is firmly part of the China geopolitical sphere, so its prosperity remains closely tied to broader geopolitical stability in the APAC region and the tenor of US-China relations.

Middle Eastern money tends to be very cautious about these US-China dynamics, given the region’s deep commercial and security ties to the US.

Ultimately, Hong Kong is for players who want China access, while Singapore is for a China-neutral position.

Other countries seeing inquiries is Zug in Switzerland.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, within every industry are alternatives. At times, it may not seem to be alternatives and when monopoly like positions are to found, but come a crisis, alternatives are found. The issue is what happens when the crisis is over? Will the monopoly like positions rebound to where they were or will the alternatives or competition take market share? It is a never ending question, but if there is no crisis, it tends to be a decades answer.

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

In April 2, 2025, President Trump announced Liberation Day or tariffs on every country in the world. President Trump believes in tariffs and wanted more economic activity in the US. The tariffs were signed in by executive order using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)which put its path in the court system. The US Constitution says only Congress can pass taxes, but the President said he does not believe in higher taxes, he wanted more revenue, this was different. The court cases came and the lower courts said no, tariffs are a tax. The case went to the Supreme Court and the court agreed tariffs are a tax and only Congress can increase taxes. If President Trump wanted to, he could go through Congress and try to have them pass the tariff tax. Unfortunately for him, he does not have the votes.

US Customs and Border Protection went to work and designed a program called CAPE. The system will consolidate refunds so importers will receive one electronic payment, with interest where applicable, rather than processing refunds on an entry-by-entry basis. At the Supreme Court, one of the arguments to keep the system in place was that it was going to be complicated to get back the refunds. The agency figured it out.

The Agency noted there was $166 billion collected from tariffs and the first phase is for money to go out starting April 20, 2026.

In court cases, some 56,497 importers had completed the process to receive electronic refunds affected by the court’s ruling or $127 billion.

A different issue is prices went up because tariffs are a cost, when the importers receive the bulk of their money, will they lower prices, because the cost of the tariff is gone?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, ideally all the companies follow the law or the regulations decided by the government. They can try to change the rules, sometimes by courts and sometimes by regulatory bodies, but they should follow the rules or the rule of law. It has taken a year, which is why the process takes time but in the end the court delivers the correct judgement. Sometimes the law helps your investments, sometimes they take a hit, but often they will bounce back and in the long run you will be rewarded.

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

If you think about satellites one of the companies that will come to mind is Starlink. There are many companies in the sphere but because Elon Musk owns Starlink, it is the one that comes up in the media and likely to your thoughts. Mr. Musk is a very good marketer of his brands. Another company that needs to be in this space is Amazon.

In an article from Reuters, Amazon is acquiring Globalstar Inc for $11.57 billion for its satellite business. If you think about the world of drones and ensuring internet access wherever you are or want to be, one of the methods is satellites. Amazon is experimenting with drones for its last mile deliveries, so it needs access to the internet or its own satellites.

Starlink has a 10,000 unit strong network, Amazon has 200 and Globalstar 2 dozen. However, Amazon has ambitions to have 3.200 satellites in Earth’s low orbit by 2029. It is preparing to roll out its satellite internet services later this year.

Globalstar’s satellite network is designed for reliable low-data connections directly to the mobile devices or Direct-to-Device (D2D). The advantage is no need for devices to connect to ground-based cellular towers. (there is a company which offers investors monthly dividends and owns cellular towers, if you own it there will be more competition).

Starlink serves 9 million users globally and is also developing D2D services through partnerships with T-Mobile.

Starlink’s parent is SpaceX and it is moving forward with an IPO, Starlink contributes between 50 and 80% of revenue generated by SpaceX.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, technology changes many things and it changes how the landscape of how companies make money. For a long time, cell phone companies used cell towers, at some point do the newer cell phones use cell towers or satellites. If they use satellite companies, it changes the revenue model for cell tower companies. In every industry there is competition, how the landscape changes is what you need to focus on as an investor.

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

If you remember the Olympics in China, you might remember the opening and closing ceremonies at the Evergrande Stadium. At the time of the Olympics, Evergrande was the biggest property developer in China and its founder at the time the founder was one of the richest people in the world. Times have changed.

In an article by Clare Jim of Reuters, the founder of China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer, pleaded guilty to 8 charges, including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud and illegally taking public deposits.

The indictment of the billionaire founder of the once China’s number one property developer would mark an end to his rags to riches story. Evergrande has defaulted on most of its $300 billionaire in liabilities.

The liquidators of Evergrande declined to comment on the case. Evergrande’s Hong Kong court-mandated liquidation has moved at a glacier pace over the past 2 years, according to liquidators, with $255 million of assets sold as of August compared to creditors’ claim of $45 billion.

Evergrande specialized in building low-cost homes, aggressively running on debt and ensuring having ventures which are passions of Chinese President Xi Jinping. In building homes, Evergrande and others helped make the property and the rise of prices a significant part of the economy, as China went through an infrastructure building boom. The fall of house prices led the company threatened the social stability of the country as many ordinary investors saw their holdings wiped out. The mortgages were greater than value of the home or they were underwater. It was easier to walk away.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when Evergrande was in its headway and growing it was the darling of the press, but it was built on debt and rising prices. Once the music stopped or the waves receded, only debt was left. It is a story about too much debt, which is why for your investments you are concerned what their debt levels are?

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

Every country and industry has at least one great asset to fend off the competition and when you understand what the asset is, you can understand how it can handle competition. In the case of Iran, the biggest asset is oil.

In an article written by Patricia Cohen and Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times News Service, how does Iran which as one of the world’s largest reserves of oil, but is on the sanction list of many developed countries continue to function as a country.

Iran has traded with 190 countries since 2019, when the international restrictions were imposed. Overall trade is down, but the country has imported much needed food, electronics and auto parts while it sells oil, gas, construction materials, specialty foods and thousands of other products.

The expectations is that sanctions have isolated Iran from global trade but that is not entirely the case. Iran’s trade has grown more complex over time in response to sanctions.

Trade date over the past 30 years may offer clues about the Iranian economy. Its ability to adapt under the strain of sanctions and disruptions could signal how it would operate going forward.

Precise trade figures are difficult to obtain, however China has stepped up as Iran’s biggest trading partner. During the pandemic, China invested $400 billion in exchange for a steady supply of oil. In 2024, China purchased 90% of Iran’s oil exports.

China also accounted for 25% of Iran’s non-oil exports from 2019 to 2024. Payments are made in renminbi, China’s currency avoiding the use of dollars and the need to involve US banks. China appears to provide nearly 30% of the commodities Iran imports selling everything from furniture to sunflower seeds.

Both countries use a barter system whereby China receives oil from Iran and in return Chinese state-backed companies build Iran’s infrastructure from airports to roads.

Iran’s economy has been diversifying from oil, although heavily dependent on oil, to exporting $120 billion in non-petroleum commodities, according to data from Harvard university’s Atlas of Economic Complexity.

Iran is helped by its geographical location to several trade corridors, as it borders 7 countries including Pakistan, Afghanistaon, Iraq and Turkey. Iran was access to the Caspian Sea as well as the Persian Gul and Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s 3 biggest trading customers are China, Turkey and Iraq accounting for over 50% of Iran’s non-oil export trade since 2019.

Kuwait is a major buyer of cement and sheep. Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan import large quantities of packaging materials. Most of saffron in Spain comes from Iran.

Since the sanctions, internally Iran has developed an extensive manufacturing sector that produces automobiles, steel, iron, electronics and pharmaceuticals as well as food products.

In the mid-1990’s European countries accounted for 50% of Iranian exports, now it is less than 20%.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every country or industry has some assets, when sanctions happen there will be an adjustment and it takes time to accomplish. For Iran, it can sell oil and received goods to keep its economy for the average person in the country functioning. Any country that is isolated will start to do more things internally, sometimes it is better, sometimes not so good. For every problem there are solutions, sometimes there is an easy way, sometimes there is a harder way, but a solution can be found.

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

If you think of the big 3 car companies you likely think of the North American based companies of GM, Ford and Chrysler. However, if you think about electric cars, you have to look at Chinese car companies. The Chinse companies are expanding outside of China.

In an article by Gilles Guillaume of Reuters, Chery is looking to expand car production in Europe through partnerships with other automakers allowing it to use existing factories, top executives said and an event in Paris, France.

All over the world, various automakers have built factories, some are successful and some are not, but they might be reused for another company given the assets and logistics are in place. If a new company takes over a former existing factory, the municipality will likely make it easier to open the facility again.

Lionel French Keogh, chief commercial officer for Chery Automotive said the company is looking for production capacities in Europe, The company recently launched its brands of Omoda and Jaecoo in Paris,

Similar to Chinese rival BYD, Chery is seeing rapid growth since launching sales in Europe in 2023. Last year sales grew to 120,147 units from 17,035 in 2024, according to data from auto consultancy Dataforce.

Last year, Chery’s global sales grew almost 7% to 2.8 million vehicles with overseas markets outside of China accounting for 47% of sales.

Chery has invested in a joint venture with Ebro in a former Nissan assembly plant in Barcelona and aims to reach production of 200,000 units annually by 2029. The company expects to need to open a new plant to meet demand requirements and the company is expecting to add a small electric SUV in France.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, we often invest in things we know, because if you made a rational decision on what to buy, others would likely make the same decision, and it will turn out to be correct. When we make our decisions, we look and who are the competitors and sometimes do not think about other countries because government regulations make it hard for those companies to compete in the US. Sometimes laws change and companies have various pricing methods for the consumer to buy their item or increase demand elsewhere until consumers demand the regulations to be changed.

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

In the world of economics, eventually everything is related although some events are easier to see than others. The clearest example is the war in Iran, sent up oil prices.

In an article by Christopher Rugaber of the Associated Press, the largest monthly jump in gas prices in 6 decades caused a sharp spike in inflation challenging for the inflation fighters at the US Federal Reserve and heightening already substantial political hurdles for the White House.

Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department from 2.4% in February and biggest increase since May 2024. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in March from February, the biggest increase in 4 years.

The surge in gas prices will stretch the budgets of lower-and middle-income households as it erodes their incomes, making it harder other necessities such as food and rent.

A big question for now is how the oil and gas price shock lasts and whether it will lead to a broader, long-lasting inflation boost, similar to what occurred in the spring of 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Still how the war and its impact on inflation will play out in the coming months remains highly uncertain.

Industries that depend on oil and gas are paying more, particularly airlines, which have passed on those higher cots to travelers. Fares jumped 2.7% just last month and are 14.9% higher than a year ago. Many delivery services, including UPS and FedEx, have already announced fuel surcharges that have raised shipping costs for businesses and households.

Andy Harig, a VP at the grocery trade group FMI- The Food Industry Association, noted as energy prices increase, the costs associated with producing and delivering food also rise.

If America cut back on spending elsewhere in response to more expensive gas, the economy could slow and unemployment may rise.

According to AAA, gas prices nationwide averaged $4.15 a gallon up from $2.98 a gallon from the day before the war or an increase of 40%.

The last time inflation jumped 9.1%, there were stimulus checks to push up consumer demand, this time around there are no large government stimulus checks expected to spur demand.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the term everything is interconnected is often used and sometimes it takes time to see everything is connected, however given the prominence of oil and gas in the economy, higher prices to offset the costs quickly show up. In your portfolio, there is an opportunity to benefit from higher oil and gas prices with stocks in the oil and gas business, some of them have been paying dividends for generations, which offset any personal costs.

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

When the price of oil began to rise because of the war between the US and Iran, the European leaders and the US President said they would release some of the stockpile oil supplies they have in the country to moderate the price increases. What about the other fuels?

In an article by Keith Bradsher of The New York Times News Service, one of the other fuels affecting by closing the Strait of Hormuz was natural gas. Qatar produces 20% of the world’s supply.

In China, in Yancheng there are rows of storage tanks the size of a 20-story building filled with LNG or liquefied natural gas. The largest 6 hold enough to supply gas to 22 million people for 2 months.

The storage tanks are part of an effort by China over the past decade to accumulate stockpiles of all kinds of commodities from pork and rice to rare-earth metal and coal in case of disruptions of overseas supplies.

The natural gas supplies will help cushion the supply shocks even as its neighbors of India, Pakistan and Vietnam are running low of natural gas.

Qatar is the world’s biggest supplier of LNG and they have said it will take months to back 100% on line, as some of the drones and bombs from Iran damaged its facilities.

China is the world’s largest importer of natural gas and largest consumer of fertilizer which is made from natural gas. China does have some options, pipelines to Central Asia and Russia carry natural gas to China. It is possible to use coal rather than natural gas for some chemicals.

China does have a domestic oil and gas industry. It is the 4th largest producer of natural gas between the US, Russia and Iran. China is the 5th largest oil producer behind the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Canada.

Chinese government data show that natural gas imports from the Strait of Hormuz was 6.9% of the country’s overall gas consumption last year.

China is the world’s leader in alternatives of solar and wind energy to keep the lights on. The country generates only 4% of its electricity from natural gas and that could be replaced by coal or renewables.

The state-owned China Natural Offshore Oil Corporation has built 18 of its largest size storage tanks, more than twice as many as the rest of the world. South Korea is constructing 7 tanks, but they will not be ready till 2029. Japan has begun slightly smaller storage tanks.

In terms of fertilizer, China has halted overseas fertilizer sales since the war began.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, China can do many things because they have multiple state owned companies, however when a company continually makes profits, it has the ability to ensure some of the money is used to ensure no supplies will be disrupted to it. For your investments, what supplies are the companies dependent upon outside its borders?

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

If you are a regular person, you will be exposed to music and some you will like, some you love and some you will buy. As we move into the summer months, you can count on festivals to have food, drink and music as entertainment. The issue is always how does someone profit from the music?

In an article by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Dawn Chmielewski and Mateusz Rabiega of Reuters, Pershing Square which is run by Bill Ackman has made a bid to buy Universal Music Group for $64 billion. The cash and share offer values the company at $48.95 a share which is a 78% premium to the last closing price.

Universal Music Group is the company behind superstars Taylor Swift, Billie Ellish, Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar. The company is on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and the idea would be to list in on the New York Stock Exchange which would allow index funds to own the stock.

Fears of AI disrupting the music industry have played a role in UMG’s lackluster performance. Its share of the music market has been sliding and streaming grow is decelerating, Wells Fargo analyst noted.

The large shareholders of UMG are Bollore Group with 18.5%, Vivendi Group owns 13.5% and China’s Tencent and Pershing Square (4.7%) are significant shareholders. The Bollore Group controls 80% of the voting rights.

Mr. Ackman has long held an interest is owning a larger stake in the company, in 2021 proposed to take it private but US regulators said no. Until last year, Mr. Ackman was on the Board of Directors.

Mr. Ackman said the current CEO Lucian Grainge should remain as CEO, as well as a new director would be Michael Ovitz. The offering is said to be friendly.

UMG’s shares have lost 1/3 of their value since the IPO and trade at a multiple of 21.8 times earnings compared with Spotify’s 40 times earnings.

Even as global music revenues grow year after year, UMG and other labels such as Sony and Warner Music are scrambling to stay competitive as streaming services from Spotify, Amazon, Apple and Deezer take an even greater share.

On the concern about AI, one survey found that 97% of listeners cannot distinguish between AI and human generated songs.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in this case Mr. Ackman knows who the large shareholders are and if they wish to sell, offering a large premium to the stock should make the takeover go easier. Since the Bollore Group owns the majority of voting rights, it comes to whether he wants to sell or why he cannot what Mr. Ackman proposes?

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