In many countries around the world, one of the jobs for people is to join the armed forces or military. There are many skills which one can learn and hopefully, the world is at relative peace so you can leave with a pension. What happens next? similar to people around the world, the person can take advantage of the skills they have. Some with go into private security and mercenary. There is always a role for them, but it seems the role of the mercenary is getting bigger in the last number of years. In the Middle Ages, many kings paid for mercenary armies and while they were in power the people stayed, when they began to lose, they went home. Now days, the role of the mercenary tends to protect business interests in countries over than where the home office is. The assets lie within countries with shifting power at the top. In the world of the corporation – the desire for stability is a key. Among the countries of the world, the wealth tends to be more skewed than in the G7 countries so they is greater conflict. There are a variety of books about this subject and one of them is Fortune’s Warriors by James R Davis published by Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, 2002. In the book, Mr. Davis discusses his role in private security working for an entrepreneur who invests in relatively unstable, poor governments which have great mineral deposits. If he can mine successfully, pay off the required people, there is money to be made.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the mining sector which is going through a downward part of the commodity cycle, there are only a few companies which pay a dividend, but they are all in the search for relatively low cost minerals. The minerals are in many countries around the world and some do not have the same lifestyle as the one G7 investors live in. Should your home country protect the investors? It is an age old question which has tended to be yes they should. On Wall Street until someone comes with a higher bid, then you should protect them, when the bid comes higher accept the payment and move on. Sometime when you invest, you think you are buying a steady stream of income but in reality you are buying something more.

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