If you are an investor you will pay more than a curious passing to the politics of the day. As an investor, it is possible you will learn about the process of government and government contracts which could influence the way you invest. If you are aware of how the process is supposed to work and somehow it does not work that way, your radar or smell test will go up. It may take a little why to understand what is going on, but your radar will go up. Sometimes you will invest, sometimes you will leave it alone. Often times it will depend on a word or two and the intentions.

Recently read a book called Civil War – A History of Ideas by David Armitage published by Allen Lane or Penguin Random House LLC, New York, 2017. In the book, Professor of History at Harvard University David Armitage wrote about civil wars since the Roman times. What is a civil war, what has to happen and who classifies war as civil or not. What should people do?

A parallel to what is happening in the US are lawsuits regarding should Donald Trump be on the ballot in various states because of the word insurrection. In various states, the one in Colorado has both side in court debating whether the January 6 was or was not an insurrection. The debate centers about the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and what did it mean when it was passed after the Civil War. The clause was deemed necessary to exclude people from being involved in government processes if they tried to change the administration with violence.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, fortunately with stocks, we rely on the numbers and the numbers should not lie. They maybe fudged, but if enough people see the statements and do analysis, the flaws come forth. Traders who specialize in short selling, often are the best folks at finding something wrong or not quite right. As an investor, you expect the company you are investing in to be above the law, one of the methods to ensure this is asking does the company make a profit for a number of years, can it easily pay its dividends and expect to do so for a number of years, and does the company tend to stay out of the courts. The courts have a great function in many aspects of people lives, ideally as a dividend investor you want to see less of them.

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