In the area in which you live, you will see many people with fences. When the majority lived on a farm or rural areas, fences were designed to keep the cattle or livestock inside the fences. In urban areas, the fences are designed to keep young children in or maintain a level of privacy for the adults. In a book called Walls – Travels Along the Barricades by Marcello Di Cintio published by Goose Lane Editions, Fredericton, New Brunswick, 2012, the author goes to places in the world where walls separate countries. Depending on where you are from, you likely can name some countries with a wall, in the US it is the wall along the Mexican border. There are many other walls in the world. The walls on the Western Sahara; between Ceuta and Melilla; the Indo-Bangladesh Fence; The West Bank Wall in Israel; Nicosia/Lefkosa; Belfast, and The Great Wall in China. All of the walls try to keep people from moving from one side to the other. Sometimes it is for what is supposed to be peace; sometimes it is suppose to stop immigration; sometimes it is supposed to be better for the country which put it up. What develops overtime is people must enforce it; deal with the barriers – before they existed relationships between the border existed; people must deal with those who wish to come across for what are very compelling reasons or they would have used other methods. If a country is stable and relatively secure, then walls are not needed. If it is not, people move with their feet from conflicts – what should the world do? The answer is always easier if it is not in your backyard.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, on the economic side as investors you want your company to have walls against the competition to keep them out and allow your company to prosper with the ability to raise prices or gross margins. In terms of accumulating money, walls are a great strategic advantage to the organization.

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