The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds is the Chinese name for Baron Gustaf Mannerheim who was sent by the Tsar of Russia to travel to Beijing along the Silk Road and report back on the countries. It took him 2 years to do the journey and later he settled in Finland (as he born there) and his trip was incorporated in the university studies. One of the students who studied the reports was the author Eric Enno Tamm who decided to recreate the steps in 2006 (the 100th anniversary) and wrote the book The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds, published by Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, 2010. One of the interesting aspects of the book is how much life is same, but slightly different for many of the people along the way. The environment or making a living is the concern of the citizens, the second and usually distant concern is geopolitics. In the past 100 years the lands from St. Petersburg to Moscow to Baku to Kashgar to Zhengzhou to Beijing have been broken up, put together in the USSR, broken up to independent states and now slowly put together again. The lands have some resources – oil and gas which makes them valuable to both Russia and China. The growing influence of China and the demand for resources, the ability to move people into a region and to protect those interests are interesting stories. In addition, for the people of the lands in terms of the religion to which they practice has been both favorable and unfavorable to the governments of the day. When it is unfavorable, it is hard to practice. When it is favorable, life is a touch easier, still difficult but a touch easier.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, we all have a concept of time. Sometimes we believe we are short of time, sometimes we have lots of time, but books such as The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds gives a longer concept of time. Dividend paying stockholders tend to believe in a reasonable future (the world is not going to end) for we expect the basic elements of society to remain in place for a while to come. If you expect the basic structure of the economy to continue, then investing in profitable stocks is a good thing to do. The move to alternatives always takes place but the rate of change is likely less than you think or expect it, so look forward to the future and collect dividends along the way.

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