Detroit, Michigan was in the news a couple of weeks ago for its financial problems as it declared bankruptcy. Detroit is a city the author has been and similar to anyone that has read a car magazine over the years, a must see city. The auto plants have mostly left the city and moved to the suburbs or to other states, but Detroit remains the headquarters of Ford, GM, and Chrysler and is also home of the Tigers, Wings and Lions. A city like Detroit has things going for it, even though much of it feels off limits during the night, but during the daytime – there are parks, magnificent old buildings and sections of the city everyone feels comfortable in. In addition housing and commercial rent are low which attracts people, not enough people to replace the people who have either moved to the surrounding area or left, but inexpensive commercial rent means hope for the future. Many start ups including those in the arts are to be found.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often we think of government as institutions that pay their bills and are stable, as shown in the case of Detroit most of them are; but even a city can file for bankruptcy and hopefully emerge better when it comes out. Just because a dividend paying stock has been paying dividends, you must ensure that management is meeting the needs of the buyers of its goods and services. Processes change, sometimes for the better, but they change and if the company does not change with the processes, then the profit begins to shrink and so does the dividend. For companies that have paid dividends for decades it is a testament to the quality of the people who work there or the degree of monopoly like conditions which exist.

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