For non financial reading, the author picked up the book Among the Truthers by Jonathan Kay, HarperCollins, 2011. The book is a journey into the people who believe the government and others are trying to do cover up something or have a conspiracy theory. In many cases, there are some facts, just not all the facts that back up the theory. The classic example is the shooting of JFK or President Kennedy. It is hard to believe the official reason about the lone gunman. Having said that, the logistics that people believe must have happened and for none of it to leak out in the years since is quite remarkable. The are many conspiracy theories and they are needed for there are many competing interests on all issues. Years ago, as a public, we were willing to believe that the end result that was implemented was the best choice for all. Sometimes we are not sure, for goodwill to the public is not always the first choice on the list. In terms of companies, it is important, unless the market is a very isolated one, to be successful companies need the public goodwill.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all of these companies operate in the goodwill space of the public. There are very good reasons why the near monopoly exist and need to exist. Sometimes it is general safety, in order to ensure a high degree of safety and compliance with regulators, competition is limited. The expectation on the dividend paying company is with the limited competition, public goodwill needs to be very high on the expected outcomes. However no company is perfect and when they are not even close, movies which tell the story similar to Erin Brockovich, where the underdog beats the public utility to help the good people that were damaged by the company and to ensure the company keeps the goodwill of the public at the forefront of its values – do no harm are important. If you watch the movie do a timeline of the work and effort needed to do fix something that should have never been allowed to happen in the first place is one  of the reasons why conspiracy theories will always have a place in the news.

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