An old Star Wars movie was on TV over the holidays and the title of the book caught my eye. Fly Fishing with Darth Vader by Matt Labash, Simon and Schuster, NY, 2010 is about outsized and outrageous characters who dominate the airwaves. Mr. Labash finds comedy, humanity and some of the reasons we the general public half care about these characters. If you are a regular watcher of the show 60 Minutes many have been profiled because they are both different and interesting. Some of the people have run for either governor or President of the US and while they have a viewpoint, they do not have much electorate success, however it is important in the democratic system we have that they do run. The profiles of the people make us both cynical and thankful about the political results that often occur – most of the people who do get elected actually try to do a good job. It is generally not to hard to find those that enrich themselves even as they pretend to be involved with politics. The other stories in the book are stories about great American cities which have declined – Detroit and New Orleans, at least New Orleans had a better reason – the Hurricane, but in reality the city in general has been declining for years. Detroit is more interesting because people and jobs have moved to the suburbs, the infrastructure of the city still needs to be taken care. Detroit likely has the highest abandonment of homes, even before the fall in housing prices. The city has a problem – when a house is abandoned the city can not tear it down, so squatters move in, invariably a fire happens and then the house can be torn down. The process places a great deal of pressure of both fire and police departments.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while reading Mr. Labash’s book it is very easy to cheer for and want to support the underdog. Some of the people have great public relations so we want to seemingly care for the underdog. The reality is the road to success is very long, the rewards are great but 99% will not succeed to the final elected position. The odds are both Detroit and New Orleans, as much as something should be done, it is a very long term solution. A short term solution is to go with proven winners, who have an easier time to succeed and chances are higher they will. In terms of your investing, over the long term if you stay with proven winners or stocks which pay dividends, year over year you will do better than investing in the underdogs. If you want to invest in the underdogs, ensure the bulk of your investments are with companies that pay dividends, and a small percentage goes to underdogs. The ride is sometimes more exciting but it is often results in owning shares that cost you more than the market value. For the reverse situation let the dividend help you own shares with greater market value than the cost of buying.

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