In the movie My Fair Lady, a professor bets a friend, he can teach proper English to a flower girl and present her into upper society. In the movie, he does and then there are consequences what happens to the girl? In addition, her father inherits some money, and he sings a song about middle class morality or values. Before inheriting he had less than middle class values or living day to day. Now he has to think about tomorrow. Every society has values for its citizens to live by and they teach the public what is good and not so good. Values can and do change, sometimes it is the economy of the country which influences them.

In a book called Butler to the World by Oliver Bullough published by St. Martin’s Press, NY, 2022 the values of Britian have changed and Mr. Bullough would suggest not for the better. During the Victoria times, Britian or UK or England emerged as the most powerful country in the world backed by the British Navy. At the heart of the success was trade which brought raw materials to the ports to be transformed into goods to be shipped back to over 2/3s of the world’s population. The British institutions became the most important in the world because of the resources to maintain and enhance them. After WWII the empire fell apart and the wealth that flowed to Britian fell. What was the country to do?

The country tried to maintain some semblance of power by seizing control of the Suez Canal which connects the Red and Mediterranean Seas or the short cut between trade from India and Europe. To seize control the British sent in the army to run the government of Egypt. If British could not control India, at least it could control the sea routes. It was the top reason why General Nasser led the revolt to change governments in 1952.

After Britian could not control the seas, what could she control. In Mr. Bullough’s book, the British economy moved slowly at first now it is a given to help the world’s worst people launder money and ensure the global powerhouse of the City remains a powerhouse in financial services. Within the billions of dollars that are traded in the City are what middle-class morality says is dirty money and the institutions of the banks, hedge funds, insurance companies, law firms help to ensure the money is not dirty. Some of the clean money pays for expensive real estate in and around London.

In the old movies, one of the middle class moral sins was gambling. In the online world, one of the most profitable industries is online gambling and some of the biggest firms are formerly based in London. If you are a sports fan, read the sporting advertisements for the names. At the time of the writing, many companies moved their operations from London to Gibraltar whose government welcomed the companies as they built new offices and provided employment to those living in Gilbraltar. The country is one of the tax havens of the world where domiciled companies pay no tax. The other tax countries mentioned in the book are British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands. If you go to the Cayman Islands, you will see office buildings with many financial firms that are based in and around New York City.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you are in the position to enjoy a good income from dividend paying stocks it tends to mean you have accumulated money. At one point you will think can I even pay less tax on my income after going through the income tax. What will your middle-income morals think you should do? Open an account in a tax haven? It is relatively easy to do. If you own a company that has been a leader and has a downturn, at some point in time the old management will want to grasp at something that made them feel as they were the leaders again. Think of the reason why England took control of the Suez Canal and had to send an army to maintain it. It is wise to watch from the sidelines till management has changed, then you can nimble again.

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