After a person leaves high school or post secondary education, the lessons they learn will not be a graded but whether one was a success or failure. Since most of us are not perfect, life will give some successes and failures along the way, the issue if you are to lead is what did you learn and how will try to avoid it the next time. After the education system society in generally measures success and failures in monetary terms or did you make money or lose money? There are many paths to success and failure, but what road is taken when a failure results?

Sometimes the sons and daughters of the more influential people in society should have more options or seemingly more knowledge about risky paths than others, in reality there are many examples of sons and daughters losing money.

In an article from Reuters, the President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde, who through her job has access to great amounts of information about banking in Europe and what financial assets are to be avoided, given the first rule of investing – try not to lose money. Ms Lagarde said he sons who are in their 30’s, contrary to her speeches and public stances invested money into crypto money and managed to lose 60% of their money.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often people have to lose money or invest in stocks that have terrific years then over the next 5 years give all the gains back to be almost flat. Few people set up to lose money, but they invest in the hot sector and they have gains but do not sell. The stock markets turn to the next hot sector and the previously hot sector’s total return begins to turn downward. Investors hold on to their shares because it could go up, there are valid reasons for the sector to go up, but because it is no longer hot, the demand is not there. Eventually, investors examine dividend paying companies and realize investing in profitable companies that can pay dividends over the years increases your total return, which is a very good lesson to learn.

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

In America there is the constitutional right to free speech, which implies you can say or write anything you want except going over the line to violence. This is wonderful for individuals and sometimes there is an accountability to the individual. Many people have posted comments on social media and in later years, someone examined their posts and they may or may not be promoted or the company they are representing not win the contract because of their posts. The important element to society is the person has the right to post the information.

In an article by Kate Conger and Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times News Service reported there is a difference with companies and posting information. If a company needs advertising as revenues, it has to respect the aims of the advertisers. If the image the advertiser is seen to be damaged, advertising will be changed to other companies. The issue is the ongoing conflict in the Middle East – Israel and Palestine. With every conflict there is both good and bad on both sides, but sometimes long-standing prejudices and conspiracies will enter the space.

In the case of X formerly Twitter, major advertisers have paused their spending as the backlash of Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on the platform. Companies such as Warner Bros, Sony, IBM, Lionsgate, Paramount Global which owns CBS stopped advertising.

Social media companies such as X are essentially advertising companies, however major brands do not want their ads next to posts with offensive or hateful speech. An organization called Media Matters said X had put ads besides tweets that promoted the Nazi Party. Elon Musk said a review of X’s data says there were only a handful of ads placed beside the posts of the Nazi Party. Mr. Musk said the company will sue Media Matters.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as an individual you can have whatever view you wish to have as long as you do not cross the line to violence. With a company, it has to pay attention to the wishes of its customers, because unlike governments, companies can limit who the customers are. Part of the organization is a determination who the customers are and who the customers are not. Usually, companies are lagging behind the changes in the demographics of the country, but the President has a choice one way or another and generally try to stay in the middle where the company supports both sides. It is one of the reasons companies support the United Way and minimum wage requirements, they want it both ways. Whatever company you invest in, there will always be a pro and con with the company but with the dividends you can decide where you want to spend the money.

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

On Wall Street and many other streets around the world, there is an expression money talks. On Wall Street, investors are hoping money talks to them and good results happen, but whether there is a merger or other transaction, the company board or investors on the other side will say show me the money or money talks. If a merger price is considered low, raising the price will sway the suits. In labor relations, it is the same, offer enough money and there is labor peace.

In an article by David Shepardson and Ben Klayman of Reuters, the United Auto Workers (UAW) negotiated with management and then the union has to show the offer to the member of the union. With any large group some want more, others will be happy, and if the union received higher wages and benefits they will believe the higher is the new normal or standard of other companies.

For the UAW, they had a 6 week campaign of targeted strikes and auto companies determined how much money they lost for their workers being on strike and how important it was to settle. The UAW workers received higher wages after years of stagnant wages and a reduction in the tier wage rates. Workers will receive a 25% increase in wages over the life of the contract.

Even with higher wages, 7 of GM’s assembly plants rejected the deal however GM’s largest assembly plant in Arlington, Texas along with plants in Detroit, Fairfax Kansas and Lake Orion, Michigan voted for to have a 55% margins to 45% against. At the time of the writing, 67% of Ford workers and 66% of Stellantis (Chrysler) workers have voted in favor.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all 3 companies pay dividends and all 3 companies have an important role in the economy for the general public likes cars, trucks and SUVs. For the auto companies trucks and SUVs make the bulk of their profits. Similar to Wall Street, investors like to buy low and sell high and money talks or results matter. All throughout the wage scales money talks.

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

In the stock market, not every company goes up or down at once, often times the companies move up and down according to themes. The most popular theme is AI, but themes are consistent throughout the market. There are potential new weight loss drugs, when interest rates go down it is possible more people will buy homes which helps Home Depot and Lowes among other companies. There are macro trends which tend to affect some companies more than others. One method to be in the group is to buy an index fund tied to the theme. The index funds have relatively low cost, the funds should have some diversification within the group, and when they are introduced to the public there is great hype and positive results. Some of the funds are successful, but how are the performances in the long-term?

In an article by Bansari Mayur Kamdar of Reuters, Morningstar Research used their wide ability to do analysis of the funds and many investors left over 2/3s of the potential gains on the table due to badly timed trades.

One of the problems with buying a theme fund is the first desire of the investor is to make money. How much money is the issue. Theme funds have doubled their assets under administration (AUM) since 2018, Morningstar Research data shows.

In a 5-year period, theme funds had an annualized 7.3% return from June 2018 to June 2013, but investors saw a 2.4% return according to a report by senior analyst Kenneth Lamont.

The S&P 500 index returned 14% annually.

The report attributed the disparity in earnings to poor market timing. Results were bad in more volatile funds where investors tended to trade more frequently and bought high and sold low.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, investors in these stocks tend to have a longer horizon period to expect better returns. With the S&P 500 index, the index company takes out the losers and replaces them with winners twice a year, which tends over the longer term to allow the funds to have better returns. Theme funds do well when the market is pushing them, but they tend to go out of favor and prices fall until they are back in favor. Sometimes boring is better.

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

Every industry has conferences, some are local, some are regional, some are national, and a few are international. If you are in the industry, you should know what conferences are important to the company and which ones will solidify the operations for the future. In the world of passenger aircraft, the most important airshow is the British French air show which alternates between the two countries. In the world of passenger airplanes, 2 companies dominate the industry Boeing and Airbus.

With the rise of OPEC countries and their desire to diversify from oil wealth, although their economies are still dependent on oil and gas exports. If you were an economic development planner, you would want to ensure your country is a hub country which means multiple airlines fly into your country and the airport. The airport, the hotels, the retail uses, and distribution facilities all create and maintain permanent year around jobs. The government of Dubai is trying to do that.

In an article by Jon Gambrell of the Associated Press, the government through Emirates is connecting cities on all continents non-stop to Dubai.

Emirates opened the Dubai Air Show with a purchase of $52 billion of Boeing aircraft which includes 90 Boeing 777 aircraft, 55 of them are 777-9 and 35 will be 777-8.

Its low cost sister airline, Fly-Dubai, spend $11 billion to buy 30 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.

When the last plane is delivered, Emirates will have 205 Boeing Dreamliners.

According to the International Air Transport Association, Middle Eastern airlines, air traffic is now up to 97% of pre-COVID levels.

Emirates the company announced a record 6-month profit of $2.7 billion which is up from $1.2 billion a year earlier.

In terms of Boeing and Airbus, according to Phil LeBeau of CNBC Auto and Airline Industry Reporter, Boeing has a 7-year backlog and Airbus has 9-year backlog. Boeing reported its October orders were 117, the year to date is 841, October deliveries were 34 and year to date has delivered 405 airplanes. That is good news if you are a Boeing shareholder.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies make announcements but sometimes companies showcase the announcements at conventions to gain maximum media exposure. If your industry tends to do that, then you can compare what happened a year ago. In the case of Boeing the passenger aircraft is the largest part of their business and having a 7 year backlog is a good thing to know and begin your homework if you want to own shares in the planes you fly in.

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

Every community has an economic development fund to help bring jobs or investments into the community. Given every community has an economic development fund, we as taxpayers must believe it is a good thing to do or why would we fund it? The economic development does a SWOT – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis and hopefully by focusing on what is existing and what has existed with strengthen the existing economy in the area. After focusing on the local, the economic development looks at the state and federal government to see what types of businesses those administrations are focused on. Once in a while, the economic development department will examine what types of grants (government money) is available and will any of those companies relocate to the community? Sometimes it is the incentives that moves the CEOs to make a decision positively for the community.

In an article by Ana Swanson and Jim Tankersley of the New York Times News Service, one such area of development is the manufacturer or production of solar panels. When you think about the advantages of the US, you often think about the technology-based companies and industries that seemingly could take the technology and translate into manufacturing plants. In the case of the solar panels, the biggest manufacturer of solar panels is China. The government of China has been pushing the solar manufacturing plants with a combination of government research grants and development, committing to the solar panels on government lands and helping push down prices and using export markets to dominate this space. This has resulted in China as the greatest exporter of solar panels around the world.

The folks in Washington wanted to change that focus and they established higher tax breaks for companies to work in manufacturer in America. Since the introduction of the climate law, more than $8 billion in new investments in solar has been announced. If you believe it is more than normal. you correct, according to data from Mass Institute of Technology and the Rhodium group.

The biggest plants to announce production are Suniva will make solar cells in Norcross, Georgia; REC Silicon will start a polysilicon plant in Moes Lake, Washington; and Maxeon Solar Technologies will build a plant in New Mexico to build solar cells and modules at a cost of $1 billion. In each of those announcements, the executives noted the driving factor was the Climate Law.

In 2018, US employment in solar panels at 38,000 workers; by 2020 more than 1/5 of the jobs were gone. With the new incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, more jobs are expected.

The Inflation Reduction Act directly helps the solar industry as well as credits for customers to install solar and if the panels are made in the USA a further credit of up to 10% is added.

Scott Lincicome who studies trade policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, says you can always subsidize and protect your way into have factories but at what cost?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the biggest user of the solar panels will be the utility industry and they want to provide electricity at low cost and a healthy margin to make profits and pay dividends. Due to the investments the Chinese government has made, the costs of solar panels continues to fall every year and it is in the utility interest to have power from solar panels. Whether those panels come from the US or China maybe a different manner. As an investor you can own the utility, but as you do your homework you may want to own companies that are supplying to the utilities and if government grants are helping to maintain profits, so much the better.

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

If you remember the auto workers strike at the big 3 – Ford, GM and Chrysler, many analysts were looking at Tesla and saying the gap between the big 3 and Tesla would widen and Tesla would have a competitive advantage in its electric vehicles. Part of the basis of the analysis was that Tesla is non unionized, but has competitive salaries. In every industry there will be unionized and non unionized workers, that does not mean that one is better than the other, it just means the owners or senior management has to deal with one or the other. Many years ago, my personal experience was working in a unionized environment and the wages were on the low end or very close to minimum. There are companies that do not want unions and others that tolerate or work with them.

In an article from the New York Times News Service, in Sweden, Tesla has about 120 mechanics working in the shops, however 90% of Sweden is unionized or covered by a collective agreement. The workers for Tesla went on strike which disrupts service to the owners of Tesla vehicles. Int addition, unionized dock workers said they would either stop or delay unloading shiploads of Tesla’s to support the mechanics. Other unions have called upon Telsa to bargain with the mechanics union.

Sweden has the world’s 3rd highest share of electric vehicle sales after Norway and Iceland, according to the World Resources Institute. Tesla’s vehicles are manufactured in Germany and the Model Y has been the top selling EV in Sweden this year.

Elon Musk has for years resisted efforts to unionize and in 2018 threatened to fire workers who wanted to unionize which is against US labor laws or Tesla was fined.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are advantages and disadvantages for companies to work with unionized workforces, although every company says they like the flexibility they have without unions. However, if you examine many companies, they will have settled lawsuits for unfair labor practices (is that a cost of doing business?). When companies are profitable and have very good margins, they are much more likely to work with whatever labor force they have or inherited. When companies want to cut costs, labor costs are high on the list and that is when unions tend to be needed by both sides who are open to changes in the processes of work. There are always better methods to be productive in both labor and management, hopefully the companies you own investments work with management and labor well.

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

If you watch Jim Krammer from Mad Money, and it is a good thing to watch, one of the sayings he offers is buy and hold is a good thing to do, but you need to be in the right stocks to make the greatest impact on your assets under administration. Most of the time, stocks go sideways, but there are some weeks where the market goes up and you will make most of your money in those weeks. This is why it is best to be in the market rather than being on the sidelines and watching for the right moment. If you are watching for the right moment, the only perfect information of the markets is past history and markets typically give off conflicting information, so you will likely miss most of the rallies. If you are in the markets, you need to be in the right stocks.

In an article from Reuters, an ETF or exchange traded fund tied to Nvidia is the top performing ETF so far this year. The GraniteShares 1.5X Long NVDA Daily ETF that tracks 1.5 times the daily percentage change of Nvidia has gained 328.5% this year, while the stock is up 190%.

This particular ETF uses leverage to amplify the returns of the underlying index or stock.

Will Rhind, the CEO of GraniteShares says the reason why NVLD is the up is because of the astonishing performance of the underlying company. Nvidia has become the number one stock to own in AI.

Single stock ETFs that allow for increased exposure to shares have garnered a lot of interest this year, particularly among investors interested in the Magnificent 7 – Nvidia, Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla and Apple.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, this year owning big tech stocks you would made money while if you own other sectors the returns would be much lower. In the Wall Street, there are always new products for example the single stock ETF with leverage. The issue is always what are your expectations of the return, leverage works on the way up as well as on the way down, so be careful. If you pick the correct stock or the correct sector, you will do well, if not you may lose money. In the case of dividend stocks, you can always buy for the dividend first, for example Microsoft is the largest payer of dividends in the index. It also happens to be doing very well for growth and use of AI. When you receive a double reason for owning, it makes the decision much easier to own and you have protection when the price falls, remember stocks go up and down. When the stocks go down, the ETF provider makes new ones and collapses old ETFs for you to buy the newer version. A few years ago bought an ETF of biotech stocks, they are not hot and the ETF provider collapsed the ETF, this will be normal practice.

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

If you are thinking about being a dividend investor you want to take a longer view and in many cases it is hard. If you examine the Fortune 500 list and go back 10 years or 20 years you will see many companies do not stay in the list. The fortunes of companies go up and down, sometimes based on the underlying commodity or reason the company exists. If you bought them and kept them, for some you would lose money, for others the combined dividend payments and capital gains would make your portfolio very healthy. Most investors start in one area of the economy and hopefully branch out, but staying close to where you earn your money, your interests, and what you spend money on typically means we do not invest in all sectors of the economy. If you want to do that a low-cost ETF is a very good place to begin. In the long term, change tends to be a constant and to be a long-term investor means you like the changes that are coming.

A change that is coming, is the Green Economy and one book among many is The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones, published by HarperOne, New York 2008. The book is old, but many of the ideas being circulated are now coming into the economy.

If you read, the US sits atop the 2nd largest fund of geothermal resources in the world. The American Midwest is the Saudi Arabian of wind: North Dakota, Kansas and Texas could produce enough harnessable wind to meet all the nation’s electricity demand. If solar was on 19% of the most barren land in the Southwest, it could supply as all the nation’s electricity needs without any rooftop installation.

Those are theorical numbers, but there is a movement to capture some of the wind and sun’s energy. For there are large barriers, the oil and gas industry and coal receive subsidies and has infrastructure to make the change harder. The national grid cannot accommodate new kinds of power or it would need to be upgraded. There are numerous local rules that impede access to new markets and the state and federal government would need to develop energy efficiency standards that would incentivize the private sector to move towards non fossil fuels faster.

Recently heard a speech in Congress that was trying to discourage incentives in the green industry without acknowledging the oil and gas industry receives subsidies or there is still a long way to go.

In the book, there is the reality as energy prices increase, the alternative is to increase energy efficiency in existing homes and buildings. If that is done, jobs are created to put in the energy efficient installation, windows, and new ways to heat and cool the homes. In reality, most home owners do not have access to change the home and need some form of government assistance.

There are ideas that all new processes should consider what happens to the product when it needs to be fixed or changed or used. Should we pay extra to throw in the garbage, or should the manufacturer build the action in the price as an added cost of business?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, to invest in these stocks is to invest in the long term and think of the long-term future which will be better for you and the world. It is important to ensure that you are thinking about the long term and move your assets to those companies that benefit from changes in the economy. By being positive about the future, you will be able to embrace what is new and has lasting legs of income stream to invest in. One of the most important aspects of being a dividend paying investor is being positive about the future, are you?

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