All countries around the world wish to control their destiny, but in reality someone has to provide capital inflows. Capital will flow to any country which investors believe they can receive both short term and long-term returns. The longer the investment period, the greater the desire that the government is a willing partner for the business.

In an article from the Associated Press, recently there was an election in Bolivia and it changed from socialist to center right. The socialist administration had very particular expectations for companies and most of them started with distrust of foreign companies. The new administration of President Paz starts with the expectation, foreign companies can be helpful to the Bolivian economy.

The decree by the President will allow global satellite internet companies such as Starlink or Kuiper to provide access across the Andean nation as it tries to upgrade its technology and speed up its notoriously slow connectivity rates.

The President has also allowed more capital to flow into natural resources such as tin, silver and copper mining exploration companies.

Linking to dividend paying companies, because many tend to have global reach the ideal is to go into a country which welcomes foreign investments or flow of capital. Once that is done the company will need to ensure on balance that welcoming stays as welcome and try to do all the correct things to be a good citizen of the country. For investors, welcoming free flow of capital is the start of a good thing.

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

President Trump signature slogan is America First and many in the US would agree with the slogan. However, there is a balancing act with the slogan because the President believes companies should make the goods in the US and sell to other countries around the world which is why he imposed tariffs. Think about the concept, why would the other companies buy the US brand rather than the local or homemade brand?

In an article by Nicholas P. Brown and Juveria Tabassum of Reuters, Nike is based in Oregan and if you ever owned them is a good shoe to own, they also sell branded sportswear, with the swoosh on it. Nike sells to countries around the world, it typically does the design in the US and makes the shoes in Southeast Asia.

China accounts for 15% of Nike’s annual revenues. Second quarter footwear sales dropped 21% in China and CEO Elliot Hill said we need to reset our approach to the China marketplace.

Mr. Hill has been trying to restructure the company by refreshing the offerings and cut legacy lifestyle lines. Instead, margin pain is mounting, 2nd quarter gross margins fell about 300 basis points, hit by tariff costs and a glut of obsolete inventory.

In the US, Nike has multi-channels to sell their products, in China brands commonly operate their own stores instead of selling through 3rd party retailers.

On the digital side, sales were down 36% competing against brands such as Anta and Li-Ning.

CEO Hill noted we firmly believe our growth will come through sport, but the reality is we have become a lifestyle brand competing on price in China.

Morningstar analyst noted Nike gets some benefit of the doubt, at least for a couple quarters because sales in America were not that good when Mr. Hill took over, but the results have gotten better.

Recently Apple CEO Tim Cook bought a few million dollars in shares and Nike shares jumped up.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, companies have many strengths and if they are in retail they must have what consumers want and willing to buy, not what they have in inventory. That line makes retailer a tough market, but if you do it well, margins increase and profits come along. The other issue for retail is goodwill and that is where politics come along, sometimes it helps and sometimes it does not.

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

On Wall Street similar to every other street, the half full glass is always a topic of conversation. Is the glass half full or half empty? Did you miss the run up or will those prices fall? The best way to avoid this is to buy quality stocks, which tends to the big well capitalization companies. However, when Wall Street bears ask about half empty, the sector will be affected. At the moment, the biggest conversation piece is the massive amount of money going into the AI. This means there will be winners and losers, how do you know?

In an article by Karen Weise and Eli Tan, the hyper scalers or the magnificent 7 are the prime movers of AI and will need a great amount of data centers. They have the revenues, the size and need for the results, however they do not do everything. Similar to many industries, they outsource.

This fall Microsoft announced a series of deals, totaling tens of billions, to lease computer power for its AI ambitions. Meta secured a $30 billion in financing to build a data center in Louisiana without taking on the debt itself. Google committed to rent computing power from a small company and then sell some of it to OpenAI.

The deals had one thing in common: they allowed the large companies to reduce their financial exposure to the frenetic, global building of data centers.

The large companies push some of the risk of the AI boom onto the shoulders of upstarts eager for a piece of the action.

Trillions of dollars are at stake as tech companies try to predict how much computing power AI will demand years down the road. If the big companies decide they do not need all the computing power, the smaller companies and their lenders will be stuck with all the consequences.

The deals also add a level of mystery to data-center financing because many companies running the data centers are far from household names. Some are privately held, do business with large startups and borrow from private lenders.

An example is Meta in Louisiana. Meta created a special purpose vehicle called Beignet Investor and worked with Blue Owl Capital, a private credit firm to borrow money for the project.

Meta is responsible for the construction of the data center, but Blue Owl is responsible for 80% of the financing. Meta agreed to rent the facility in a series of 4-year leases. This means for Meta the funding is operating cost, not debt.

Blue Owl primarily funded the project called Hyperion through a bond offering to Pimco. The firm sold the Beignet bonds, which mature in 2049, to clients including insurers, endowments, pension funds and financial advisors. BlackRock owns some of the bonds.

Andrew Rocco, a stock analyst at Zacks Investment Research, notes the key part of Meta’s strategy is they are going to get as much of this built out with what the industry calls OPM or other people’s money.

If the AI were to slow, Meta can walk away in 2033, Blue Owl would have to find new customers or sell the project.

In September, Microsoft signed a $17 billion deal with Nebius, a neocloud. In October, Microsoft signed a deal with Nscale, a privately held British neocloud. In November, it agreed to a $10 billion deal with Iren, a former bitcoin miner. It also signed with Lambda, another neocloud. (Neoclouds are the new generation of data-center providers).

Alex Platt, an analyst at the investment bank D.A, Davidson, noted it was very savvy of the big companies. There are only a handful of companies that can do it.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, large companies tend to be vey good at trying to lower risk. While everyone talks about a competitive environment, the reality is that large profitable companies to have a division or two that has monopoly like environment to make money. In the world of insurance companies they have re-insurance companies to lower the risk to the individual company. Lowering the risk, allow plenty of upside potential is the path to generating wealth.

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

In mid-December, a medical supply giant went public and the prices rose which is good news for all those who wanted to own the shares.

In an article by Echo Wang, Arasu Kannagi Basil, Isla Binnie and Pritam Biswas of Reuters, the medical supplies maker and distributor has been in operation for 46 years. In 2021, the company was bought by Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman for $34 billion. Five years later the company has a market valuation of $46 billion plus.

Medline was founded in Northfield, Illinois by Jon and Jim Mills and key manufacturer and distributor of supplies such as surgical kits, gloves, gowns used by hospitals worldwide. The company has 33 facilities including 19 in the US.

President Jim Boyle said we make things that cost pennies, not thousands of dollars and having a robust, diverse geography that has primary, secondary and tertiary locations.

The company reported revenues of $20.6 billion and net income of $977 million for the 9 months ended in September 27. In other words a profitable, cash-generative business which is well-understood.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in every industry there are the sexy industries and sometimes they are the best to be in, there also tends to be reasonably dependable companies that year in, year out make profits to pay dividends. The task to know which ones and ideally buy the best one to hold for a period of time. Then the markets will fluctuate, but you do not have to worry about it, just be mindful, similar to in other parts of your life – quality matters.

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

Every once in a while there are videos about robots, sometimes given the male dominated engineers are robots that look like potential girlfriends, but the real money in robots is made in the manufacturing sector. Robots to do the work than humans could do but they require the use of brawn, or the use of heavy lifting, and robots can work 24 hours a day as they are properly maintained. The world leader in many robots is China.

In an article by Meaghan Tobin and Xinyun Wu of New York Times News Service, in China robots are doing many of the things people can do including dancing, running and boxing. The technology is amazing, but with over 150 manufacturers, where are the sales? and the Chinese government is warning the industry was at risk for a crowd of highly repetitive products.

China gained an early global lead in manufacturing robots. China is using more robots than the rest of the world combined. In China they installed 300,000 new robots versus the US 34,000 last year.

Public and private investors have spent more than $5 billion on startups making humanoid robots.

Chinese robots makers have significant advantages: they can draw on the world’s strongest manufacturing sector and the backing of multiple levels of government. They are getting better at making parts such as motors and specialized screws in robot joints.

What Chinese robot startups have not been able to do is make humanoid robots that could transform the economy. The robots have been programmed to follow patterns, but terrible when chaos or unpredictable events happen.

Unitree Robotics is planning to do an IPO to help it becoming the leading manufacturer of humanoid robots. The price in China is US$ 6,000. The leading player in the US is Boston Dynamics and its robots are price much higher. In 2020, Hyundai Motor Co bought Boston Dynamics.

Deep Robotics raised US$70 million in its latest round of financing. The investors included: the venture capital arm of Geely, an electric automaker, and the Beijing city government’s dedicated investment fund for robotics and artificial intelligence.

Linking to dividend paying companies, technology can be wonderful and exciting, but for more cautious investors there needs to be sales. Which come first – investors or sales? With your dividends you can watch the industry see who leads the group and when things begin to shake out, snap up shares at good prices. The watching and analyzing takes homework, but without profits you want to limit the risk. Examine the early adaptors and how are they using the technology to make life better or easier for themselves. You will gain an idea of which companies are addressing the issues and solving the problems. Patience is the key and with dividends you can have patience.

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

During the first half of 2026, it seemed President Trump’s principal enemy was China and every second day he was raising tariffs on one thing or another. By the end of 2026, the relationship had changed.

In an article by Li Yuan of the New York Times News Service, the world’s tallest bridge opened in China’s Guizhou province and the pr campaign was the remarkable story of China’s path to modernization.

China has been buoyed in 2026 by a surge of confidence, convinced that its governance model is ascendant and its rise inevitable. There are serious concerns such as a slowing economy, a deepening housing crisis and falling birth rates.

The US has started to frame China more of a business competitor than as a rival for military, technological power. This is a shift from the previous.

Part of the shift was seen when the President reversed Washington policy to allow Nvidia to sell advanced semi-conductors to China.

Mr. Yuan writes he has interviewed a dozen Chinese tech executives and they fell more optimistic than they have in the past 4 years.

Market sentiment has shifted, the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng stock index is up 25% this year.

China has poured billions into infrastructure spending and some of it is the best on the planet, (if you have not seen it, there are many You Tube videos to do your homework on) which shows the abilities of the country. America has to follow suit, will it?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, on the market there are battles everyday but what stands out is confidence. Who believes they can be better and why? If you buy a dividend paying stock, there are many reasons why the company can still make profits to pay dividends and you need to ensure the reasons are valid and management believes or has confidence it can do it again.

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

If you listen to President Trump he denies there is climate change and but the reality is there is one industry that whether you believe in climate change or not, will charge you more – the insurance companies. Everyone needs insurance of one sort or another, sometimes it is mandated such as if you own an automobile, you need insurance to get your license to drive it. If you have a mortgage you need insurance to protect the bank. There are many other examples of insurance such as pet insurance, health insurance, but you know that very few insurance companies lose money. The insurance go into the reinsurance market to make their risk even smaller.

In an article by Pritam Biswas of Reuters, the largest reinsurance company in the world Swiss Re released a report that annual global insured losses from natural catastrophes are expect to hit $107 billion. The US stood as the most affected market in 2025, accounting for 83% of the global insured losses.

Insured losses from natural catastrophes topped $100 billion for the 6th straight year. The insurance companies has focused on tighter underwriting, higher premiums and examining risk models.

Jerome Jean Jaegeli, Swiss Re’s group chief economist, note reinsurers and the broader insurance sector has a dual role: acting as a financial shock absorber and supporting the development of resilient, risk-informed public policy and private investment that reduce future losses.

The good news, the first half of 2025 produced $80 billion in losses and the second half of $25 billion was less than the $150 billion was which projected to happen.

Rising climate risks are prompting insurers to pull back from high-risk areas across the US widening coverage gaps and increasing financial pressure on vulnerable communities.

In some areas, limited government insurance is the only product available, as private insurance premiums are too high for the average person.

2025 was a low from hurricane losses as few hurricanes made landfall on the US coast.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when someone talks about a subject, all you need to do is verify if the insurance with the subject is going up or down. The insurance companies have the best modelers in the industry and they do not like to pay out too much in compensation, if they do higher premiums for everyone is the result, whether you are high or low risk. Insurers pay a role in the economy, but lowering costs is rarely one of them.

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

Last year, President Trump announced a change in the supply system by imposing tariffs and then announced his desire to 90 deals in 90 days. In the past trade deals tended to take years because they are complicated, but the President wanted deals.

The first deal was with UK and it was agreed in May and signed on September 18, 2025.

In an article by Eshe Nelson and Ana Swanson of the New York Times News Service, the critics warned the terms were loose and the commitments vague. Now the risks of that ambiguity are becoming apparent.

The US informed the British government that it would pause fulfilling a technology-related agreement between the 2 countries, which included more collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI) and nuclear energy. The move came because American officials felt that the UK was not making sufficient progress in lowering trade barriers as promised in the May agreement.

Part of the agreement was the Tech Prosperity Deal, which extended research collaborations and encouraged deeper commercial partnerships. America’s big tech companies announced more than $40 billion in investments in Britain for AI data centers and other technologies.

But the language of the agreement said it only becomes operative alongside substantive progress being made to formalize and implement the May trade agreement.

The Trump administration says the UK has made insufficient efforts. The White House announced the agreement, but has kept negotiations with countries open for months after the President has said they were done.

The 90 deals in 90 days has amounted to 15 deals which are not yet completed. There is an Supreme Court challenge coming up in January which could invalidate many of the President’s tariffs because of how they implemented (by emergency power signed by the President) rather than agreement by the House and Senate. In addition, President Trump has granted exemptions on some goods.

Linking to dividend paying companies, the companies tend to thrive in strong stable governments where the rules and regulations change slowly, but they can adapt if needed. For the tariff policy, many have adapted by controlling costs including hiring less people and raising prices. At some point there is a limit of how much costs can be cut, making greater margins is the key to success. Everyone will be watching the Supreme Court’s questions and answers as well as the rational of what the government lawyers say. Stability is good for business.

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