What happened after WW II is an interesting book by Tom Bower called the Paperclip Conspiracy, published by Michael Joseph Ltd. London, UK, 1987. The war is over and as in tradition, the winners divide the riches of the defeated land. Fortunately in our society most of the wars are economic and it is companies getting bought and sold. Everyday it happens, although many times they are friendly takeovers, there are many unfriendly but usually no one dies. Companies get restructured, buy outs happen, the cost of the takeover goes up, communities are affected but generally no one dies. After WW II, the leaders of Russia, US and England had a great desire to ensure the new Germany would not be as powerful as it was before the war. Before the war, Germany had a  strong infrastructure, access to raw materials and a history of craftsmanship. Their schools, training, and precision engineering were all better than the rest of world. You likely have read or heard ads about their cars – BMW, Audi, VW, other countries make cars but German cars engineering is consider the best. When the war ended, Germany was bombed, there were a million things to do to bring life back to what is considered normal, within what was going on, including ensuring millions of people had something to eat, live and have clothing. At the same time countries moved manufacturing machines, files and scientists and their families to U, Russia, France and England. Each country had strengths in different industries and wanted to strengthen their industry and keep Germany’s industries in a weakened state. In Mr. Bower’s book he describes rocket engineering, tanks and fighter planes. Three critical components of fighting a war and the Germans were years ahead of the other countries in their technology. Russian MIGs planes were better than Americans for years, until the Americans caught up, the MiG were based on German engineering which the Russians took from the Germany when the war was over.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, to the victors goes the spoils, but what spoils are important? In the case of the breakup of Germany, Russia took a great deal because the other sides did not realize how good Germany was and were not that interested as they were focused on the other million things. Russia took control over a piece of land which contained many factories, the other countries wanted the resources to pay the debts, because of the war.The leaders in war, were not the best leaders in peace time. The transition from war to market economy was not something the leaders adapted to well. All dividend paying companies need to have people trying to determine how to gain resources from those companies that are the competition. All companies go through cycles and when companies have to much debt, good assets are available if you know what you are looking for. Dividend paying companies have the ability to look to the future, to weather the cycles and still be profitable and are in a position to pick up desirable assets at low prices from the competition. To do so takes homework, planning and patience.

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