In the world, there are always either companies or countries wanting to get bigger and there can be numerous benefits from it. Once in a while, they will come across some who has access to resources to fight back and the fight will continue but is it worth it? There might be extremely practical reasons why the aggressor needs to win.

In an article by Paul Sonne of the New York Times News Service, an example of a country fighting a war that it its mind was supposed to be a relatively easy experience. The war has gone on for 4 years and has changed Russia.

Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Russian central bank official who is now a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, noted you have lots of money spend on tanks, shells, bombs, military benefits and other things – no long-lasting value, nothing that works on what we call development.

Today, nearly 40% of Russia’s federal budget is devoted to the military and security. Another 9% goes for interest payments on debt.

Russia has enormous oil and gas reserves and previous to the war was Europe’s biggest customer. That has changed and Russia is burning through its National Wealth Fund, a rainy day financial cushion was up to $113 billion which is now down to $55 billion.

The world has been spending money on AI, Russia is spending on weapons. Given the large number of computer graduates from Russia, one may have thought Russia had an advantage, unfortunately Russia is a laggard.

With the war with Ukraine has meant fewer foreign direct investment and because of higher military spending, interest rates for the citizens are higher than normal.

It is estimated that 325,000 troops have died, and the birthrate has fallen which means the population of Russia was around 145 million and the most pessimistic scenario could fall towards 100 million by 2100.

As with every war, the longer it lasts, the more the average person wants to end it. Some are protesting and the government tries to stop or slow it down both by a show of force and restricting social media.

The war has divided the Russian economy – businesses in the military are doing well. The rest of Russia is mostly struggling as oil and gas revenues decrease, manufacturing slows, small business tries to cope with higher taxes and costly loans and the average person feeling pinched by higher prices and utility bills.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in all businesses there is a one time or another a disagreement that takes time and energy and resources away from the core business of the company. It could be a potential merger, a lawsuit, but something that seems to gain a life of its own. There tends to be consequences and in the words of a former BP CEO feeling the pressures of an oil spill, I just want my old life back. What does it take to go back to normal?

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

On February 20th, the Supreme Court released their decision about President Trump’s signature tariff policy. There was a lot political capital weighing on the decision and the Court decided the method President Trump decided to implement the tariffs was constitutionally wrong, by a 6-3 decision. The President has used a process known as International Emergency Economic Power Act or IEEPA. The act was originally designed if and when the US engaged in war, they could quickly stop trade between the 2 countries. When the war was over, things could revert back to what is considered normal.

In an article by Patricia Cohen of the New York Times News Service, there will be and are many questions about how goods flow around the world.

The Treasury department announced it will no longer collect tariffs under the IEEPA. President Trump said he was going to use Section 122 of the Constitution. Section 122 gives the ability of the President to impose tariffs but they are on emergency measures and end in 150 days.

What the Supreme Court wants the President to do, is if he wants to impose tariffs go through Congress and pass a bill. President Trump knows he likely does not have the votes for sweeping tariffs, as noted the bill passed the House saying no tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the US’s two biggest trading partners.

William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chamber of Commerce, noted uncertainty is likely to continue as the ruling does little to clear the murky waters for businesses.

It is estimated tariffs have brought in about $200 billion in revenues since April. In response to the idea of tariff refunds, Juan Pellerano-Rendon, a logistics expert and chief marketing officer of Swap, a software company noted refunds will that months and no serious operator is building their year around a potential tariff refund.

If you believe foreign companies pay tariffs, then you believe it should not be too hard to refund to countries. If you believe that the importer of the goods pays the tariffs and that is a cost and some or all of it was passed through the supply chain which means the consumer ultimately paid higher prices or the cost of the tariff. It should be relatively easy to payback the importer, does the consumer receive lower prices? or does the company keep the extra margins?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies react to the global supply chain and every company has a marketing advantage if something is made in the home country. However, usually not everything comes from the home country and when it does in terms of manufacturing, automation of the workforce is the solution. There are manufacturing plants in China which operate with few people, most robots and Hyundai announced it will be introducing personal robots in their manufacturing in South Carolina.

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

President Trump wants lower interest rates and talks it about the subject at great length, unfortunately he does not set interest rates. In could be as a real estate developer, he wants interest rates to be very low, it could be for other reasons, although we saw 0% interest rates in Japan, but the economy was not good. There is a trade off, because the Federal Reserve Bank sets interest rates.

In an article by Christopher Rugaber of the Associated Press, the 19 participants who help set interest rates at the Federal Reserve, though the release of their minutes want to see inflation fall further before they would vote in favor of a cut. The committee views a number of statistics and sees the job market as stabilizing.

At the moment, most of the committee sees interest rates at a level that neither stimulates the economy nor restrains the economy. If interest rates fall, more borrowing would be expected to invest in businesses that would stimulate the economy. If interest rates increase, the level of borrowing would tend to fall which would tend to restrain the economy.

The Fed Rate is 3.6%.

One of the problems with the fed is the Trump administration desire to increase tariffs and decrease income taxes, which increases prices or inflation. Inflation is running around 2%.

There are many other factors but with the release of public data the public can come to similar conclusions as the Fed Board.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as long as the yield or dividend rate on dividends is better than the interest rate, buying dividend stocks is a good alternative. If the company can continue to produce profits to pay dividends, the total return from the dividends and stock price increases should be better than investing your money in your bank’s products. If interest rates go to high, then move your money, but for now dividend paying stocks are a good investment.

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

One of the ways the companies grow is to do mergers and acquisitions and sometimes they work out well and sometimes they do not, but when the companies do the transaction the President and executive teams are vested in the transaction. When the President is vested in the transaction, at what point should the under the Kenny Rogers song – know when to hold them and know when to fold them. Two companies that really want to buy Warner Bros Discovery are in that situation.

In an article by Dawn Chmielewski of Reuters, the battle for Warner Bros Discover continues to go on and as it goes on both companies are spending money on winning the transaction and executive time and the battle goes on. On Wall Street the phrase is show me the money, Paramount Skydance Corp submitted a higher offer.

The new bid improves on its initial offer of $108.4 billion or $30 a share.

Netflix offered to buy Warner Bros Discovery for $82.7 billion or $27.75 a share.

Warner Bros Discovery’s Board of Directors still like the Netflix offer.

MoffettNathanson analysts had earlier said a winning bid should be in the range of $34 a share.

Warner Bros plans to spin off its cable TV assets such as CNN and HGTV into Discovery Global which could fetch between $1.33 or $6.86 a share according to Warner Bros estimates. Netflix likes it the idea, Paramount does not.

Ancora Capital, built up a $200 million stake Warner Bros Discovery and is pushing the Board to engage with Paramount, which is one of the reasons for the increased bid. Other investors such as Pentwater Capital Management are also engaging the Board.

The results of the merger for Netflix would be a combination of HBO would mean it the biggest global streaming company with roughly a half a billion subscribers. For those in the business in Hollywood, it could mean fewer job cuts.

For Parmount Skydance, the benefits include a studio bigger than market leader Disney and fuse 2 major TV operators that will control almost everything Americans watch on TV. It turns out Netflix stuck to its cost discipline and Parmount Skydance won.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, for many investors when a merger is offered some me the money is a cry because the company was doing well and earning profits, the owners have to deploy some of the money to other companies in the space. It is always good to have options if you are to sell. The vote for Netflix’s offer will be March 20.

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

In the world of economists a tariff is an extra cost and invariably the consumer pays the cost. Thankfully there are alternatives for almost everything that people buy, so tariffs can be avoided by buying domestic. However, if the non domestic is less expensive, better quality, easier to buy and a host of other things, at some point the tariff will be added to the product. Ever since Liberation Day, President Trump has claimed foreign countries pay the tariff.

In an article by Ana Swanson and Sydney Ember of the New York Times News Service, researchers at the New York Federal Reserve Bank and Columbia University suggests that through November of 2025, 90% of the economic burden of the tariffs fell on US companies and consumers.

Every company in the world marks up their products to earn a profit, what that markup will depend on a great number of variables, but tariffs would eat into that markup. In order to keep prices down or near the same, if the company cannot find alternatives in the short term, sometimes they make less money or their margins fall.

Who ultimately pays the cost of tariffs – when an importer of record is first responsible for paying the tariff to the US government. The importer of record, often a US company, can pass the cost on to others by raising prices. If the middleman or wholesaler then passes it to a retailer or distributor of the good.

President Trump has often said the cost of the tariff is borne by the foreign supplier. The foreign supplier can reduce their prices to participate in the US marketplace.

The New York Fed study found that from January 2024 to November 2025, the bulk of tariffs have fallen on US companies and consumers. In the first 8 months of 2025, 94% of the tariff’s incidence was borne by the US.

Many companies tried to front end the tariffs by stockpiling inventory, however as inventory levels fall, avoidance of the cost of tariffs will no longer be an option.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one of the reasons to like these companies is they typically have a wide variety of income sources or they are diversified through the cycle of the economy. This means that they can weather the political storms for a little while, but eventually the company will report margins. If they fall the stock price falls or the company must keep its margins which help investors stay for the long-term.

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

For generations, if you are an individual, if you landed a job with the government, it was deemed as a safe and secure place to work and for the most part the job was insulated from the cycles of the economy. When the economy was down, the job was reasonably safe, when the economy is up, there are choices but the job is reasonably safe. If you are work for a private business, gaining a government contract is a good thing.

In an article written by Tripp Mickle of the New York Times News Agencies, a business with government contracts is receiving pushback from the employees. More than 800 employees called on management in a petition to be transparent about how Google’s technology supports the federal immigration agencies and urged the company to stop business with those organizations..

They asked the company to take safety measures to protect employees after a reported attempt to protect employees after a reported attempt by Immigration and Customs agents to enter the company’s campus in Cambridge, Mass.

Tech workers, who have largely stayed quiet as executives cozied up to the Trump administration, are beginning to push some of the world’s largest companies to pressure the White House to change its policies.

Many employees in Google believe in the company’s informal motto: Don’t be evil.

A Google spokesperson said the Department of Homeland Security used commercially available cloud infrastructure through Google’s customers, including basic cloud computing and storage services.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, anytime the client is the government, there will things it does that some will not like, there be other things that people love. Government contracts tend to be consistent and they help pay the bills. No having government contracts is hard because many things overlap, but ideally having them means better policies exist or could exist.

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

Every company in the world has cost inputs, some of it is people or human capital, some of it material costs. In terms of materials, often there are choices, but at some point something will be compromised to save costs. If a company saves costs, the better the potential margins which translates into profits which translates into dividends.

In an article by Eshe Nelson of the New York Times News Service, Pandora, the world’s largest jewelry brand by volume, typically buys 300 tons of silver every year. Silver prices have increased by so much that Pandora will use less silver in the charm bracelets and add platinum to hold down costs and keep prices similar to last year.

Silver at $80 an ounce is twice as expensive as it was a year ago.

Pandora, which prides itself on offering affordable luxury, the rapid increase in silver prices has affected its business model.

A year from now, the jeweler plans to have shifted at least half of its silver products to platinum plating on a metal alloy. The rise in platinum this year is about 3%.

Berta dee Pablos-Barbier, the CEO of Pandora said it is very risky for any business to be dependent – so highly – on one commodity price. Pandora is headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark and last year had revenue of $5.1 billion up about 2%.

The company makes most of its jewelry in Thailand and sell a substantial amount in the US. A successful rebranding and embrace of lab-grown diamonds helped propel Pandora’s shares to a record high in early 2025, then came US tariff policies and shares have slumped. Pandora was diversifying from Thailand with new facilities in Vietnam, but President Trump imposed 20% tariffs from both countries.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, what are the choices? what are the options? for every profit-making company these questions drive cost savings on a regular basis. For most companies almost everything has a choice which companies whether they make profits or trying to make profits examine on a regular basis. It is natural for processed foods to change successful formulas of food processing to less varieties to save costs. In this example, the cost of the raw material increased and the company tries to use less while trying to increase the use of another mine.

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

If your portfolio contains mining companies of various sizes, you will be well aware that resources are spread across the Globe and when they are spread across the globe it means countries have many different political systems governing them. Some you likely you could live in, some countries you may want to visit, and others are way down on the list to visit, but they have mineral resources. As an investor, you leave it to the company to determine how it works with the government.

In an article by Geoffery York of the Globe and Mail, President Trump has declared the US needs to have US ownership of critical minerals in order for the county to be and continue to be a world leader. This is when it becomes tricky.

The Democratic Republic of Congo or the Congo is a major producer of cobalt and copper. China controls an estimated 70 – 80% of the copper and cobalt production in the Congo. There is a war which has killed thousands and forced millions to flee the Congo. In early February, President Trump and the President of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi signed an agreement for the US to do more in the Congo.

One of the largest global miners is Glencoe, it decided to sell 40% of its Congolese copper and cobalt assets to Orion Critical Mineral Consortium, in which the US government is a partner. The deal is for about $9 billion.

Orion CMC was formed to secure long-life, high-quality production of critical minerals while supporting resilient supply chains for the US and its allies, noted Oskar Lewnonski, CEO of Orion Resource Partners.

The Orion consortium is backed by 2 state-owned investment funds the US International Development Finance Corp and ADQ, s sovereign wealth fund in the UAE or United Arab Emirates.

Similar to stockpiles in oil the US has in the US, President Trump launched Project Vault, a $12 billion domestic stockpile of critical minerals.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the world of Wall Street, where money talks there is limited morality about what happens within countries as long as the interests of the company are protected. As an investor you can decide which companies you invest in or do not invest in, there are many companies that meet and surpass whatever value you have, which is why choice of Wall Street is a terrific thing. When the government invests in projects, issues of allocation of scarce taxpayer dollars come forth and is it the best thing to do in a capitalist society?

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

When you think about the phone and China, until smart phones were invented only a few select people had assess to phones. When smart phones were released, millions of people had access to phones. As the technology evolved, there was an app for a product, service, information. It became and continues to be part of the marketing of every product. This implies there are many apps to choose from.

In an article from Reuters, KFC’s parent company in China reported aggressive growth in its digital loyalty programs, exceeding 590 million members, or more than 40% of the population. Think about that 40% of Chinese smartphones have the KFC app to order KFC or Pizza Hut. 55% of sales come from the app.

In China there are about 13,000 locations for KFC, which Yum Brands says is the largest restaurant chain in the country.

Yum China CEO Joey Wat said 80 -90% of KPRO’s sales come from KFC loyalty members. In addition, the new AI ordering assistant rolled out is complete and has been used by 2 million members concentrated ordering breakfast and coffee.

Yum China said 265 million users are active, meaning they have been used in the last year.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the more and more people have smartphones, the more and more people use them and the issue is if you invest in a company which appeals to a broad base of people, do they have your app? is it a good one? This is one more piece of homework you can do before you make your decision, because if you can have similar numbers as Yum Brand, 40% of the population downloaded the app and 75% are active users, you should be able to project a consistent income for the company.

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