If you are an average citizen, you will have heard and likely debated climate change. It is coming, can we use less fossil fuels in terms of cutting costs. If you have bought a new or newer vehicle that your older one, your gasoline mileage increased for the auto makers have to have increasing fleet mileage every year. In other words, you took some steps toward saving some fuel consumption. That is a good thing for you and the planet, if you have children or grandchildren, they thanked you for your continuing efforts. In the last 15 years, one of the fossil fuel which has been under the greatest potential to change is coal. There are coal deposits and for generations the coal was used to generate electricity, The problem with coal is the byproduct of using it is the fumes go up into the atmosphere and even though the scrubbers in the smoke stack removes some particulars, the smoke is not clean. Another problem for the coal companies was the alternatives such as solar came down in price and electrical utilities switched to less expensive alternatives of natural gas and solar.

In an article by Sibi Arasu of the Associated Press, despite coal being the biggest source of planet-warming gases, the coal fleet grew by 19.5 gigawatts in 2022. New coal plants were added in 14 countries with China leading the way. The other countries were India, Indonesia, Turkey, and Zimbabwe according to the Global Energy Monitor, a organization that tracks a variety of energy projects around the globe.

There are 2,500 coal plants around the world, coal accounts for about one third of the total amount of energy installation globally.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as an investor one of the elements you pay attention to is the infrastructure of the industry. Some industries have more flexible infrastructure and technically it can and is being done anywhere where the people are. Other industries have built out infrastructure which means that it will take longer to disrupt the industry. For example, in terms of building a ship, there are only a few shipyards which can do the job. The issue is always how good are they receiving new contracts to build more ships. When you are investing look at the infrastructure that has to be disrupted before the company does not make profits.

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

Most of us live in a bubble and that is ok, however it also means your views are shaped by the bubble and when they are shaped by a bubble they will be distorted. Some small ways to look outside the bubble is to read, to be involved with community groups which try to do good in the community. Often times the community groups can lead to connections and getting to know more people who live in bubbles of their own. An important reason is to look outside the bubble is to look at back issues of Fortune 500, which companies were on the list when you first started investing? which companies are on the list now? notice some changes, did you change your investing to match the new lists?

If you are reading, one book which was read recently was Non Obvious – Megatrends by Rohit Bhargava published by Ideal Press Publishing, 2020. There are many views of what will be the trends of next year? event next quarter? and just because you know which trend there will be, it is harder to predict what company will take advantage of the trend to make money and pay dividends. However you should try and Mr. Bhargava notes the 5 mindsets of non-obvious thinkers are Be Observant – see what others miss; Be Fickle – learn to move on; Be Elegant – craft beautiful ideas; Be Thoughtful – take time to think and Be Curious – always ask why?

When you have embrace some trends – you can Engage Your Customers – inspire more sales and greater customer loyalty; Evolve Your Strategy – embrace disruption and prepare for the future; Develop Your Career – build your personal brand and propel your reputation; Strengthen Your Culture – improve your engagement and recruiting and Share Your Story – make your marketing and sales messages more relevant.

One theme will be Big Data and how it is used. An example for the book is Chinese insurance giant Ping An. In China there are very few landline phones or the country uses cellphones. Ping An spent at least 3 years perfecting its AI based Superfast Onsite Investigation claims system. If a driver is involved in an accident, they take their app from the phone and scan the car, the app matches the damage against a database of 25 million parts used in 60,000 different makes and models of cars sold in China. The system calculates the cost of parts and labor to fix that damage in more than 140,000 garages across China. The app includes a facial recognition process that reads consumer expressions to detect possible lying and potentially fraudulent claims. In its first year of operation, the system helped settle 7 million claims and saved the company over $750 million.

For the customer the benefits include: the decision process is decreased in time; which garage the customer takes the vehicle to will be in the price range of the app; and if garages are more than the quote, the company could say we do not deal with them.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when you own them it is entirely possible to only have to review your portfolio every month or quarter or 6 months because you want to know are the companies profitable and are they still paying a dividend and is the dividend in my account? if the answer is yes, then you do not have to do much tinkering with your portfolio. However, if you read the story about Ping An and asked does my insurance company do that? if the answer is yes, then you have a good idea you should stay with it. If no, then why not? Could the insurance company use the system of Ping An using your country’s data and gain market share? When the internet was started, Microsoft asked in commercials where do you what to go? or what are your curious about? hopefully there is always something you are curious about.

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

If you watch the Super Bowl, at the end of the game, some of the players are paid to say they are going to Disney or Walt Disney World in Florida. If you go back into history, Disneyland theme park was set in Anaheim, California but soon outgrew the space it was located in. Walt Disney looked at the hotels and other attractions that settled around the theme park, which he did not control or own and said never again. When Disney became more successful, Walt went looking for a space somewhere in the US and settled on the Orlando area. Walt Disney ensured the company bought more land that they needed, truthfully more land than they would ever need, they have 25,000 acres. The extra land, most of it swamp land was put into an entity called Reedy Creek Improvement District after the creek which went through the property. The Reedy Creek Improvement District had all the rights of a city and its bonds are backed by the full credit of the Disney Corporation.

Disney is one of those master marketing machines which is designed to cater to any group with the money to spend at Disney. It has enough attractions to cater to all faiths and ethic nationalities with very few incidents that the public knows about. There have been books and videos about the Disney customer service levels and the theme park is open every day of the year. If you have not been to Disney, it is worthwhile as a visitor or to learn about.

Disney opened the park to the LGBT groups with many having duel incomes, no kids or money to spend, the days were successful.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did not like Disney which is the largest employer in Florida and is the primary reason why the Orlando area and airport draw millions of tourists to Florida every year. The Governor decided to take control of the Reedy Creek Improvement Area which was set up in the 1960’s and controls the land decisions for the future operations of Walt Disney World. Similar to corporate organizations, Reedy Creek Improvement Area has a Board of Directors and according to the bylaws has an election every year. Governor DeSantis picked some people to be on the Board. Disney did not like it and at their last meeting, which was held in public, the old Board passed amendments to give control of Reedy Creek Improvement Area undeveloped lands to Disney and retain the roads, fire department and garbage department. For a long time, Disney was doing these services, but they were not what they really wanted to do – the services are public services. At the meeting, Reedy Creek gave Disney the control of the land for 30 years plus 21 years after the death of the grandson of the present King of England.

As they say in England, Governor DeSantis was not amused and sent a letter to his Inspector General to investigate the changes. Disney called the Governor acting in a manner which was not pro-business and noted at its AGM, over the next decade Disney expects to spend $17 billion in the Reedy Creek Improvement District creating 13,000 jobs.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every large organization has to work with the government and giving the role Walt Disney World has in the economy, it is rare for the government not to cooperate. too get along and not be interested in photo ops than fighting the company. Normally an announcement by a company to create thousands of jobs would get the interest of the Governor. Profitable businesses tend to outlast politicians who tilt at windmills.

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

If you love to eat fresh bread invariably you are dependent on the grain traders and in the world of grain trading 4 firms dominate the market by controlling 70-90% of the market. The 4 companies are ADM or Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Cargill in the US and the Netherlands company Louis Dreyfus. In addition to the private sector companies, the countries which grow the wheat have government trading companies which do country to country trading. When one of the big 4 say they are doing something or not doing something in Russia, it is important to markets.

In an article by Olga Popova and Karl Plume, Cargill said it will take a further step back from the Russian market by stopping handling Russian grain from its export terminal in July, although its shipping unit will continue to carry grain from Russian ports.

Cargill owns a stake in the grain terminal in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, said as grain export related challenges continue to mount, Cargill will stop elevating (lifting of grain into export vehicles) Russian grain after the completion of the 2022-23 season.

Russian Agricultural Minister said, the cessation of its export activities on the Russian market will not affect the volume of domestic grain shipments aboard. The company’s grain export assets will continue to operate regardless of who manages them.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, even in highly monopolized markets there will be alternatives, although most will not be viable under normal circumstances. In the case of Russia, the government will subsidize the movement of grain, but generally governments will not offer subsidies to competitors. Once things return to normal, it will depend on how the company did and consumers reactions to the monopoly companies. The important aspect to remember is even though your company makes a profit and can pay a dividend there are alternatives in the marketplace, as we move to Annual Meeting time ask about the alternatives in your industry.

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

If you are an investor, you tend to believe technology and continued improvements will make the world a better place, otherwise why invest money? Sometimes governments get ahead of the technology and sometimes the technology gets ahead of government rules and regulations. In Europe, the politicians in the European Union believe climate change is the world’s most important issue and want to reduce the amount of carbon Europe releases in the atmosphere.

In an article by Kate Abnett of Reuters, transport accounts for nearly a quarter of EU emissions and the EU gave final approval to end sales of new CO2 emitting cars in 2035.

This means cars sold in Europe can either be electric or run on e-fuels. This type of fuel is considered carbon neutral because they are made using captured CO2 emissions. Although at the moment, e-fuels are not produced at scale.

Porsche and Ferrari are among the supporters of e-fuels, while VW, Mercedes-Benz and Ford favor battery electric vehicles.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, most of these companies are similar to ocean liners in the sense they need a large space to make turns. There will be divisions which are very nimble and quick to decision making, but due to the infrastructure the company has built up, it is very hard to turn on a dime. The companies can believe in the intent of the government legislation, the company can want to follow the legislation but often times it has millions of dollars in sunk costs dealing with the present system. It takes time and government subsidies to change. If the government wants change and provides the correct incentives, the company can more easily embrace the changes.

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

After WW II was over and peace was in the land, there were many countries around the world that needed to be rebuilt. In Europe the rebuilding was called the Marshall Plan, but as the country with a large economy and not needing basic infrastructure to be built, the US and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and later the World Bank came together to lend money to countries. Ideally the premise was to stay within the free market economy. Eventually the USSR had a fund for those countries that were communist. For generations, the US and USSR were the bankers for the world, when the USSR broke up and China began to government surpluses, it rose to be the banker to other countries. In China, the plan is called the Silk Road or the Belt and Road Initiative.

In an article by Keith Bradsher of the New York Times News Service, China has emerged to provide emergency loans to debt ridden countries. New data show that China is providing ever more emergency loans to countries including Turkey, Argentina and Sir Lanka. The countries are either geopolitical significance, or have lots of natural resources.

While China is not equal to the IMF, in recent years, China has provided $240 billion in financing. In 2021, China gave $40.5 billion. The data is provided by AidData, a research institute at William and Mary University in Willamsburg, Virgina.

The IMF lent $68.6 billion in 2021.

China’s money has paid for construction of highways, bridges, hydroelectric dams and other infrastructure. US officials have accused China of engaging in debt trap diplomacy. The country is saddled with debt, but the work is carried out by Chinese companies often using Chinese engineers, Chinese workers and Chinese equipment.

China typically charges higher rates than the IMF at 4% versus 1 to 2% for financially distress countries, but both charge about the same for middle income countries at 4.8%.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, similar to businesses, when there is a gap in the market someone will cover it for both political and economic gains. Sometimes the larger profitable companies do not want the business because of economic risk factors or in the private sector companies can determine who they want as customers or do not want. When there is a gap, a company will emerge to close the gap. When there is a concern is does the second-tier company begin to take business from the top tier company. In the world of digital finance, the distinction maybe less than previous years. For your companies that you invest in, who and who is not the target market?

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

In every industry, the government has rules or regulations for each sector, it needs the regulations to both determine how the overall health of the industry is and to keep government bureaucrats working on something productive. That last statement is the typical statement from business owners who have to ensure the statistics needed by the government are done and sent to the departments. The government is interested in the overall number, not necessarily an individual business. Both political parties, Republicans tend to want less regulation and the Democrats tend to want more information, need the information to ensure government is responsive to what they feel the needs of their voters are. When things are going well, corporate interests tend to dominate; when things go badly, individuals who were harmed tend to dominate. The political parties tend to do a balancing act with enough wiggle room to offer both blame and credit for their actions in government.

In an article by Christopher Rugaber of the Associated Press, the regulators of banks noted they warned the management of the banks about their concerns but the management did nothing or changed the models to reflect their way of thinking. When that happens, the issue is for a depositor to the bank or someone who uses the services of the bank when would a reasonable person know the bank is in trouble. If the answer is when there is a public run on the bank, then the government is expected to do more than the minimum, because how would a mythical average consumer know and react? For the banks, the government quickly held hearings, in this case the Senate banking committee held hearings to determine if they should do something? The Federal Reserve top official is Michael Barr, said in light of the fact the bank regulators told management, should the Reserve have the ability to force or ensure their recommendations are followed?

The Senate banking committee were held as the Silicon Valley Bank and the Signature Bank failed and sent financial tremors in the US and across Europe. The Fed changed the rules – even though 90% of both bank’s deposits exceeded the $250,000 threshold all deposits were insured. The Fed also established a banking program to ensure banks to more easily raise cash if needed. The Fed estimated the costs to be in the $20 billion range and hopes to recover the funds from a levy on the banking sector.

Silicon Valley Bank had $200 billion on deposit, then depositors move $42 billion on Thursday and $100 billion on Friday and at the end of Friday the bank was in receivership and sold to First Citizens Bank of South Carolina. SVB added $110 billion in deposits, $72 billion in loans and 17 branches across the US.

Martin Gruenberg, Chairman of the FDIC said, the top 10 depositors at SVB held $13.3 billion in their accounts.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when you buy these types of companies, the Presidents of the companies are used to going to Washington and testifying before committees. Often times there is limited press because it is routine up dates. When something goes wrong, Washington politicians call the Presidents in to show they can ask questions of the Presidents. The real work is done in the committee work where the balancing act of what the rules and regulations should be and what is acceptable politically. For the companies you have investments in Senate and House committees can often give you more information and help you determine if you want to hold the stock or seek alternatives.

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

When companies and individuals have money, lots of money they have the ability to do something with it. Sometimes it is invested into companies which lose money or value, but the owner believed in the existing value was a bargain. Business is like that, there are typically very good reasons why some businesses are not worth over the long term what they are going for. Fortunately, we live in a country where people are free to spend their money the way they want to.

In an article by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac of the New York Times News Service, Elon Musk says Twitter is now worth $20 billion, down from the $44 billion he paid in October. Although Mr. Musk is one of the wealthiest people in the world, he paid a combination of cash and bonds or debt. In his email Mr. Musk said at one point, the company was 4 months from running out of money. The mass layoffs and cost cutting was necessary to avoid bankruptcy and streamline operations.

In addition, Twitter lost money because advertisers moved their advertising dollars to other platforms in the social media world. Twitter compares well with Snap. The market capitalization of Snap is $18 billion with 375 million daily users, while Twitter is $20 billion and has 237.8 million daily users.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies which are profitable buy and sell companies or involved in mergers and acquisitions to add to the company’s ability to service its customers. Not all mergers work out, some lose money for example in the world of tech, people switched from potential revenues to valuing actual revenues. In the above case Mr. Musk believes or says Twitter could be worth $250 billion, he sees value that no one else does. In public companies, the value has to be seen by shareholders from all their perspectives which is why selling short is seen as not believing the potential for the next year. For you investments, when the company does a takeover or merger do you see the value?

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

Every once in a while, the younger generation embraces something that the older generation (typically the parents’ age) does not quite understand. The classic example is music and rock and roll. The parents never really understood the music, but the examples quickly follow into other media such as books and movies and now phone content. If you think about vampire movies, they have been around, but generally came out around Halloween, but for a few years the movies and shows were popular all year around. On the smart phone, every year the quality of the camera and the ease of uploading video content is easier with each new phone. The ease means there are apps which take advantage of the upgrades including TikTok. With everything that is popular, there are doubting Thomas or conspiracy theories which may or may not be correct. At the moment., there is a political party which embraces conspiracy theories or gives the theories a platform in Washington.

In an article by Halleuya Hadero and Farnoush Amiri of the Associated Press, US lawmakers grilled the CEO of TikTok over data security and harmful content. The conspiracy theory behind TikTok is the company is owned by ByteDance. While ByteDance was originally owned by Chinese based companies its ownership now includes institutional companies such as Caryle Group.

CEO Shou Zi Chew noted over 150 million Americans use TikTok and the company is currently switching the data to servers maintained and owned by software giant Oracle.

Emile El Nems an analyst at Moody’s Investor Service, said a ban on TikTok would benefit rivals YouTube, Instagram and Snap sending more advertising dollars to American big tech companies.

David Kennedy, a former government intelligencer officer who runs the cybersecurity company TrustedSec, agreed on restricting TikTok access on government issued phones, but a nationwide ban might be too extreme. Some of the biggest tech companies such as Tesla, Microsoft and Apple have operations in China, what would they do?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies are dependent on actions taken by government whether in Washington, the state level or the local level to ensure they have business as usual. For the companies it means the ability to provide their services or products to customers and the only issue is supply chain concerns. Governments are influenced by a wide variety of voices, think of P&G and a group thought one of their symbols meant more than it actually did. Political parties appeal to a base of voters and sometimes the lawmakers pander to them, although no action is really taken. It does put the spotlight on the management of the company, and they need to spend their time in the spotlight rather than allocating resources of the company. How they answer will mean how the company responds for the next quarter.

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