In the world of offshore drilling for oil and gas, if a large field is not only discovered, but is brought to production billions of dollars could flow to the country where the oil and gas is discovered. It costs billions to bring in, but the rewards can be life changing to the people of the country. The example of Ghana which through the efforts of Exxon and Hess Petroleum is transforming Ghana to an capital rich country. There are other examples such as Trinidad, where Exxon is drilling and is projected to spend north of $20 billion. If a company spends that much money, it is expected at least $100 billion in returns. But all is not equal around the world.

In an article by Geoffrey York of the Globe and Mail, French oil giant TotalEnergies and its partner Shell Oil wanted to drill offshore of South African waters for oil and gas. Discoveries have been found in the country north of South Africa – Namibia.

Group worried about the environment sued and a South African court has blocked the environmental approval to drill offshore. The reason is the brief from TotalEnergies has failed to consider the project’s full impact on climate change.

The African Energy Chamber, the oil lobby group called the decision disruptive and threatens vital projects.

Western Cape High Court Justice Nobahle Mangcu-Lockwood said the environmental assessment must consider the cumulative impact of the entire project, including its potential production of oil and gas, rather than just the exploration phase. The 2 phases are interconnected and must be examined.

The court case took 2 years from launching to a judge’s decision.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, many of the companies operate in more than one country and while everyone wants the same thing in the countries how it gets done can be different. When leaders met in world forums this is one of the topics they often discuss. Often times one expects in case similar to above, the oil companies have access to multiple consultants who can offer possible projections of the future in whatever form the government wants or can live with. Sometimes the promise that development will be good, is challenged.

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

Within every medium sized and large financial institutions is a department which tries to understand both the local and national economy. If things are expected to go well, the banks can lend more money or make credit easier, if the outlook is bad, banks will lend only to those who are guaranteed to pay it back or seemingly have a very low propensity not to pay it back. This means many will not get credit. The economists go through the government and industry data and make a report, sometimes the report is good, sometimes no so good.

In an article by Niket Nishant and Saeed Azhar of Reuters, Jan Hatzius, the Chief economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote a report about tariffs which President Trump did not like. The report said US consumers had absorbed 22% of the total costs through June and that figure could rise to 67% if tariffs continue on the same trajectory.

Consumers have likely noticed some higher prices, but as the percentage goes higher, everyone will notice higher prices because the company which imports the tariff good is not going to absorb the total costs for an extended period of time. It is why you have heard CFOs say tariffs have cost us $200 million or an extra cost that hurt margins.

President Trump jumped onto Truth Social and criticized Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and disagreed that tariffs have hurt the economy.

All the above shows that President Trump does not like bad news, in his mind everything is going great. The reality is some parts of the economy are doing well, some parts are not doing so well and the tariffs which are paid by the consumer take time to go through the supply system, but they will show up in higher prices.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the best management want to hear about and the problems and how the company is solving the problems. If the person only wants to hear about success, all numbers have to be jigged to show some success, when the reality is the expectations analysts have of the company are not being met or the Aesop Fable – the Emperor has no clothes. At some point, there will be a management change because the solutions offered are terrible and anything could be better. If you invest in a company and despite all the negative aspects, the management only sees what could be, it would be good to find alternatives.

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

When someone buys a pickup truck they hopefully need it for their businesses and are willing to pay a premium price for it because all the makers of pickup trucks make a healthy profit on the vehicle. In many ways, the trucks keep the automakers in business. Technology changes and innovation still rules the production lines but other vehicles maybe in demand.

In an article by Neal E Boudette of the New York Times News Service, just 4 years ago, Ford seemed ready to give Tesla a real run on EV vehicles. Ford delivered the Mustang Mach-E, a EV truck and van. Then the growth stopped.

At the same time, higher material costs made it harder for established carmakers to make money on electric vehicles.

Ford has lost $12 billion in the last 2 1/2 years including $2.2 billion the first half of this year. Ford is still make money from the internal combustion engines, the first half of the year was $757 million versus $2.1 billion in 2024.

When a company loses money like that, a new plan is needed and was announced. Ford has developed new, lower-cost EV components that will allow it to sell more affordable cars. The new pickup truck will sell for $30,000 and be in showrooms in 2027.

CEO Jim Farley said the company has developed a brand new manufacturing process that should lower costs and improve quality. It was the most radical design since making the Model T.

Meanwhile the Chinese competition sell more EVs than Western manufacturers, often producing them at a fraction of European and American costs.

Besides the manufacturing process, Ford is counting on a new battery plant in Marshall, Detroit which uses lithium, iron and phosphate or LFP. The batteries do not use nickel and cobalt which makes less expensive.

The new production line in Ford’s Louisville factory to built an EV pickup truck has 3 assembly lines – one for front end, one for the back end and one for the battery pack and cab. The 3 branches are then joined into one where the 3 pieces are joined together. It should reduce time to assemble by 15%. Once the line is operation, the Louisville factory will no longer make the Ford Escape.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you own the auto companies in your portfolio, you would be receiving a dividend because the design of urban living in the US is dependent on the automobile. The world’s biggest consumer market needs vehicles to move around, and for a long time they were a license to print money. The famous saying by a GM executive – As GM goes, so does the US. Technology and innovation mean changes are on the horizon, but because the companies had a license to print money, they have the abilities to change. Will they still be a license to print money or will they make less? only time will tell and when you go to buy your next vehicle which one did you choose?

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

If you think about the revenues of an entertainment company, they will produce movies but few are going to be blockbusters, however some will make money. Then they will need subscribers and advertising and the more the better. At some level, the number of subscribers will be profitable, but to reach the level it will need to generate momentum or appeal to a specific audiences.

In an article by Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Michelle Chapman of the Associated President, recently the FTC approved the $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance to become the Parmount Skydance Corp. The business plan includes many ideas of using the cloud to facilitate media productions. The company also needs to attract subscribers and increase advertising rates.

Chairman and CEO David Ellison of Paramount Skydance made his first deal to buy the rights to be home to Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) through a 7 year agreement with TKO Group Holdings.

UFC market is under 30 men and many of them are avid followers and will pay to watch the championships. It is expected a number of them will add Parmount + to their streaming services at costs between $7.99 and $12.99 a month.

Prior to the deal, the UFC was on ESPN which had been paying $550 million a year as opposed to the $1.1 billion Paramount will pay. TKO also owns WWE or world wide wrestling, but the WWE sign a long term contract with Disney’s ESPN for a exclusive rights for 5 years. ESPN will launch a ESPN streaming service for the WWE.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you are going to own entertainment companies, in many respects the need commercials to pay for the operations of the company. Key metrics of how many new subscribers came in during the quarter? who is advertising on the company at what rates? then you will know if the strategy is paying off, so you can determine if the company is hold or seek alternatives.

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

From afar reading or watching movies about con artists do their thing can be interesting as long as you have no money at stake and do not know anyone who is losing money. The history of money also includes people trying to do things to take the money away or cons have been in society for many generations and will continue to be. There have been multiple movies and books about the life of con artists including The Sting staring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. In the movies, the cons are more stealing from those who steal from others or people who have acknowledgement of the police in their lives.

In a summer reading book, The Con Queen of Hollywood written by Scott C Johnson published by HarperCollins, NY, 2023. The story is interesting because with the advances of technology, the bad side is we will see more of this type of con as the years go by.

The person doing the con was impersonating various high profile women in Hollywood and targeting those who do the work behind the scenes long before a movie is shot. The man was impersonating a woman’s voice and would have conversations in the background with a man’s voice and could bounce back between the two so the people being conned did not know they were talking to a man who was really a woman.

The people were self-employed or ran their businesses and being connected to a large budget movie would jump start their revenues. The con artist did their homework on the person because many small businesses have a presence on line, so it is possible to fill in the details. They would have to spend some money up front, go to another country and use specific services to access locations, but payment would be made in 30 days. The payment never arrived, but another request for service did. The people were slowly sucked in and if they stopped no payment, but if they continued when would they get paid? never. (if you have a small business ask for 60% down, that tends to distract people).

The story includes a corporate security firm called K2 Intelligence which handles identity theft among many options. While the con artist was caught and is in jail, the reality is the effort took 3 years, a lot of effort by the K2 staff. Similar to all con jobs, follow the money is the key. The lead investigator at K2 had multiple spread sheets.

Technology was the scam’s great enabler. It allowed the imposter to be multiple people at any given moment, anywhere in the world, often all once. It increased the ability to adapt to the needs and insecurities of victims in real time. The speed and frequency of communication – whether by email, text message, Instagram, What’s App, Skype or cell phone provided the one thing that will kill any scam: doubt.

When you first started investing, you likely started with a company which trades over the price of hamburger or in the teens or above, but you can only buy x amount of shares. If you trade in the stocks for less than a dollar or 5 dollars, you can buy more. Most of those companies trade at that level because they are worth that, but every once in a while a sector becomes hot and money flows into the small companies and they go up in value. Many times after the hot phase has left the market the company reinvents itself to capitalize on the new hot trend.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the good thing with these stocks is if you buy a profitable company that can pay a dividend, the stock price goes up and down, but as the dividend comes forth you follow the number lesson on Wall Street – try not to lose money. The longer you are investing the more you will see and likely have lost money on a scam, all long term investors have lost money on something that looked really good at the time. As an investor as try to remember lesson one – try not to lose money and saying no to a great opportunity is a wonderful way to start.

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

Generally, when a CEO is chosen by the Board of Directors the people in the room are the most important people the CEO has to pay attention to. The Board expects results generally growth in the organization, higher revenues translating into higher profits. If the company delivers on the CEO’s plans, the CEO can expect a higher benefit package, and the shareholders will generally be content with their investments. It is the normal course of events.

In an article by Isabella Kwai of the New York Times News Service, there is something new the CEO has to worry about, the President has opinions and likes to write them in his Truth Social posts. This means somewhere in the legal department, they have to be subscribers to Truth Social to see what the President is posting.

President Trump decided the CEO of Intel, Lip-Bu Tan needed to be fired or he should resign from the company. The President often offers his opinion, but rarely goes into the inner workings of the company.

President Trump believes that CEO Tan over the past few months has invested in Chinese companies dealing with AI and semiconductors. President Trump believes or has reason to beleive they are connected to the Chinese military.

CEO Ban said no he is not resigning from Intel, and believes his work as a venture capital firm Walden International and when he was CEO of Cadence Design System a maker of the software for silicon chips continues to help him in the new role to turn around the fortunes of Intel.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, under President Trump CEOs have a new worry which is what President Trump thinks or listening to. President Trump believes his agenda will be doing good for the US, but realistically along the way there will be bumps in the road. Are tariffs good for every company? how are tariffs affecting the company? is the Big, Beautiful bill good for corporate America or will it have challenges? similar to most things on Wall Street the answer is in depends, but we will know looking backwards.

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

A number of years ago, there was an article about a Hedge Fund tracking private planes travel just it case 2 CEOs were meeting in the same city, without any reason. CEOs were meeting in neutral territory about potential mergers and that piece of information combination with other streams of information may be the trigger to accumulate stocks in the companies. Recently there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about if you are not flying on a private jet then you have not made it.

In an article by Allison Lampert and Aatreyee Dasgupta of Reuters, one of the largest private jet makers is Bombardier the maker of the Global and Challenger business jets. Its fleeted is over 5,100 jets with half of them in the US.

The company announced it is opening to customer care centers in the US. At present it operates in Dallas, Tucson, Hartford, Wichita and Miami.

The after-market services generated over $1 billion in revenue in the first half of 2025.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in this example, more and more people want to fly in private planes which is good for the future. The expansion of usage means the planes have to be serviced and interiors updated which means increases in service fees. Those are good things to look for if you are interested owning shares in the company. What is a good price for entry is a different set of homework, but buying into a growth company can be a good thing.

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

Most of us have seen the clips or maybe the movie of the beginnings of McDonald’s. Roy Kroc sold milkshake mixers from an office in the Chicago area and he had a large order from the McDonald’s Restaurant in California. He could not believe the order and went on a road trip to California. Mr. Kroc was overwhelmed with the efficiencies of the original McDonald’s restaurant and for 25 cents he could buy a burger, fries and a coke. The brothers who owned McDonald’s kept coming up with improvements to their one restaurant but were not interested in expanding. This is the classic case of every small business, do you want to stay small, or do you want to grow? There are advantages and disadvantages with both. The McDonald’s wanted to stay small, Mr. Kroc had a vision to grow the company across the country and around the world. If took a few years to determine how to grow profitablity but the rest is history and most of eaten at least once at McDonald’s. For a long time, parents knew the prices were very good and they have clean washrooms for the kids.

In an article by Julie Creswell of the New York Times News Service, McDonald’s is the top of the fast food market, but when is fast food too expensive? It is tough decision by McDonald’s executives because they have to concern what the government determines is a minimum wage and keep a hamburger, fries and coke close to a hour’s pay. If the price goes up, the number of times the person will come in falls. Who does the restaurant appeal to?

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told Wall Street analysts, when people drive up or come in the store and see the combo prices about $10 is the price too expensive?

McDonald’s introduced $5 meals and wraps at lower prices and that propelled McDonald’s sales upwards. The company reported global same store sales up 3.8%. Sales in the US were up 2.5%.

Breakfast sales were down, Mr. Kempczinski said breakfast was the most economically senstive time of a consumer’s day. People can decide to skip breakfast or eat at home.

Global sales for McDonald’s was $6.8 billion up 5% from a year earlier and profits rose 11% to $6.8 billion.

Most stores across the world are not corporate stores but owned by the franchisees or 93%. Under the franchise agreement prices are set by the individual store as well as the individual business owner has to incur the rising prices of labor, food and fees paid to McDonald’s to operate their businesses.

In the world of retail there is always something being tested such as variety of cold coffees, fruity refreshers, crafted sodas and energy drinks. McDonald’s is testing the drinks in 500 stores, and they could be more profitable than the food. If all goes well it will be ramped up to global franchises.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every company appeals to a certain target market and has to continually reinvent itself to ensure the target market stays repeat customers. It is one of the reasons why retail is interesting to watch and only if the company can be consistently profitable do you want to own the stock. If you do own a retail store, you need to be a customer and ensure when you go into a store the expectations you have as a customer are met and exceeded otherwise look for alternatives.

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

Anyone who has regular income is affected by interest rates and if you are a consumer and have to pay interest, you want low rates. If you to keep inflation to manageable levels, you may want interest rates to be higher. It is an age-old dilemma that every once in a while, makes the headlines because politicians like low rates. The dilemma has been partially solved by insuring the Federal Reserve or Fed board of directors who vote on the decision is reasonably independent of the political cycle. The Chair of the Fed is a fixed term, the President of the US cannot fire him, the term has to run out.

In an article from the Associated Press, the term of the Fed Reserve Chair is coming to an end in May of 2026 and the President has the ability to appoint a new Chair. Normally, those in the financial industry are more entuned to the decision, however President Trump decided long time ago he wanted low interest rates and has made the Fed Reserve decision a public policy interest. At the moment there are many with an opinion.

The President teased out that he is looking at 4 names including Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council (you may have seen him doing interviews on the Sunday News programs), Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and 2 others.

In the economy what is good for individuals is not necessarily good for the overall economy. As an individual, it is wonderful to live within your means and have little or no debt. However, in the economy in general, 60% plus is based on people spending money and having access to credit, hopefully at reasonable rates, to maintain a functioning economy. The Fed tries to determine the balance to fight inflation. The other example is if your wages go up, that is a good thing, but if everyone goes up, prices will have to go up to pay for the increases which leads to inflation.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all economies depend on government workers trying to be reasonably independent to offset what politicians want. If the politicians get what they want, they tend to want to spend money particularly a year before they are going to the polls so they can say because of me these funds have been allocated to this area. Recently we have seen politicians vote against a bill which passed but ultimately benefits their district and take credit for the allocation of resources. Independence is important to a functioning economy or eventually there will be money lost by the average consumer.

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