If you are a user of social media, you are aware of people known as influencers, people follow them and advertisers follow them with ads and the cycle continues. Influencers are around us in every industry and many of them are known for their expertise and long-term records. The same thing apply is investing. There is a fear of missing out of easy money and those firms who have a long-standing record of increasing wealth are influencers.

In an article by Niket Nishant and Aditya Soni of Reuters, Berkshire Hathaway under the leadership of Warren Buffett had a filing that said it owns 17.85 million shares of Alphabet worth about $5 billion dollars.

Recently Berkshire sold its Apple holding and has been sitting on billions of cash in Treasury bills. At one time it owned 3% of all US Treasury bills. What was Berkshire going to do with all the cash?

What happens when Berkshire makes an investment? Alphabet shares went up 6%.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, you buy the stocks for the dividend, but it is very good when influencers validate your decision. When you think about Berkshire, you think about they have patience and tend to buy long-term which is a perspective you need. Patience means not rushing into investments, let time work for you which is why Berkshire owns credit card companies – let the interest for you, not against you. Long-term means whether the market goes up or down and we all like it when it goes up, you receive a return on your investment in the positive. Over the long-term companies that make profits tend to do well in the stock market.

Listen to the influencers, find the ones you like, but ensure you use patience in your decision making. (personally, I sit on a foundation board and they meet twice a year, although we look at the positions more regularly, because we spend the money generated by the dividends).

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

If you watch investment shows, often times the host interviews the CEO of a company. Some CEOs the host really likes and believes they are really good for the job. It is not a reason to buy the stock, because CEOs eventually change.

In an article by Anne D’Innocenzio of the Associated Press, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is going to retire in 2026, although he has offered to spend a year advising his successor. Mr. McMillon has been CEO since 2014 and the new CEO will be John Furner.

Walmart has changed since 2014, it is still America’s largest retailer but is a tech-powered giant and under Mr. McMillon annual revenue grew from $485.7 billion to $681 billion a year. The company maintains that 90% of US households rely on Walmart for a range of products and more than 150 million customers shop on its website or in the stores every week. The company is the US’ largest private sector employer with 1.6 million workers.

One of the many things he did at Walmart was to invest heavily in employees by increasing wages, expanding parental leave and launching a program for employees seeking advancement and educational opportunities to earn certificates and degrees. (Walmart was known to keeping its wages low enough the employees qualified for government assisted health insurance)

From an investor point of view, Walmart has been laser-focused on maintaining low prices while embracing new technology such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Walmart also has the best logistics operation in the retail world.

At the store level and e-commerce, in August roughly 1/3 of deliveries from stores involved orders asking for goods to arrive in 3 hours or less and 20% made in half hour or less.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, after you have done your homework regarding the financials of the company, you will pay attention to the people who run the company including the President, CEO and who is on the Board, because you vote for the Board of Directors. If you like the people, as you follow the company you will have an idea of how the company actually works. Some CEOs you will like more than others, but it is important to note many have a 10-year lifespan so do not get too attached unless you are involved with philanthropy.

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

In every industry there are earlier adopters of new technology. There are good reasons why it takes people time, because which program is better for you, both individually and for the company you work for. However, those that tend to be young often are more quickly to adopt new technology. Often times they are not thinking what the ramifications are for adopting it, but they see value in using it. The latest new technology is AI and for younger people having AI help with their resume is a good thing to do.

In an article by Saira Peesker of Reuters, when one person uses AI it is good, when everyone uses it how do you distinguish between candidates?

Katrina McFadden, chief people officer at cannabis company Organigram, says her team has changed the types of questions they ask in interviews. In the past they would have asked questions that build on the CV. Now they use questions that dig into the CV.

AI resumes tend to be more generic and not especially good at highlighting someone’s unique experience and specific abilities. The resumes or CV tend to match the skill set asked for in the job qualifications.

We want to know how the person has used these skills, the outcomes they had and the progress they have made, and the interview should be in person (no using AI in the interview process).

A Robet Half survey conducted in April found 79% of the 1,500 hiring managers say they can identify when a candidate used AI to generate application materials.

Many applicants feel that an AI generated resume is the only way to get past the AI screening tools used by recruiters.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, companies need good people to work in the organization and because they make profits. they can have dedicated departments to ensure good people are interviewed and stay with the company. How is a good person determined, particularly when all openings received hundreds of resumes. How does the hiring managers narrow down the field and pick the best candidates to interview? The questions you ask about stocks can be similar to the ones you ask about people.

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

In the eyes of the law at least in front of the law courts, everyone is equal, once inside the law courts lawsuits take time to settle. Sometimes that is good for the larger organization, sometimes it is not, but over time a decision is made in court.

An example of this is from an article in Reuters, VISA and Mastercard announced after 20 years of litigation, a settlement has been reached. The other side is the National Retail Foundation, the largest US retail trade group and the Merchants Payment Coalition. The issue was the amount of fees a business pays Mastercard and VISA for their terminals in the store or swipe fees.

Swipe fees totaled $111.2 billion in the US in 2024, up from $100.8 billion in 2023 and quadruple the level in 2009.

Besides the money which will be allocated to merchants, the swipe fee will be lower 0.1% for five years. The merchants pay an average of 2.35% with a range from 2.0% to 2.5%.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies charge fees and most of them are hidden from the end user or consumer of the goods and services. Similar to your household budget, there are fees or charges everyone pays and lowering them or even eliminating them is the goal, because then you keep more of your money. The company on the other hand, charges fees and getting the fees correct is more art than science. If the company charges too little, it could easily raise fees and increase revenues. For your investments, do the companies charge the correct fees?

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

In the world of geopolitics, countries try to have other countries follow the same rules and then the market can do what it does, however all countries do not follow the biggest countries because similar to most issues, it is complicated. An example is the US and Europe imposing sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine. That appeals to the voters in their countries, but the reality is all countries have something they can sell to others. In Russia, outside of the Middle East it has large oil and gas reserves and production. In Russia’s case China needs the oil and gas and if does not go through pipelines it comes in by ships. How does it come?

In an article by Steven Chase of Reuters, Remy Osman has a lovely apartment in Singapore where he can see the tanker traffic. He has a you tube channel which he identifies and captures photos of vessels on route to international waters. Once out of local jurisdiction they sidle up to another ship and transfer their oil shipments.

The growing shipping lanes in the South China sea offshore of Singapore and Malaysia are a growing site for ship-to-ship transfer of oil from countries. The reason it can be done is there are many ships going through the lanes. Once the oil is given to another tanker, it moves the oil likely to India or China.

The reason to do the transfer is to help obscure the origin, destination and ownership of the cargo. It can go to multiple sized ships and mixed with existing crude in a tanker.

The clues for Mr. Osman are: if the AIS (automatic identification system) data being broadcast from the ship is odd. For example the ship is from China but pointed at India. The second is which flag does the ship fly? If it is from an unregulated and underdeveloped maritime country which does not have a merchant fleet, it is suspect. The third clue is the age of tanker – 25 to 30 years is too old.

Singapore is about halfway between Iran, Russia and Venezuela to go to China or India. It is estimate that some 30 ships a month are engaged in the offshore transfers or about 18.2% of global oil tanker tonnage.

If you use the example of cleaning money or once the drug money gets into the bank, it is clean money. Once the oil moves into a local tanker, it is clean oil and not at the jurisdiction of those countries which impose sanctions.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often times the volume of transactions means that the shadow world can operate in the background. It affects the volumes and the prices and invariably how much profits are gained by the legitimate companies. How the shadow world operates in your investments is important to understand.

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

Food is something we all need to eat and some companies are seemingly a license to print money and others doing almost the same thing, do not make money or barely break even. The issue is always why and how do you invest in companies that have a license to print money? In the food business it is difficult, but we all like to eat which means we all have an opinion.

In an article by Dee-Ann Durbin of the Associated Press, one of the owners of the food that we like to eat is called Yum Brands Inc. They own the franchises of KFC, Taco Bell, Habit Burger & Grill and Pizza Hut. If you are a relatively average consumer you likely eaten at one or more of the restaurants over the years.

At one time Pizza Hut is where everyone wanted to eat pizza. The company expanded and there are 6,500 stores in the US and another 14,000 stores around the world. The biggest location outside of the US is China, although half the sales of the company come from the US.

One of the biggest problems of Pizza Hut is the design of the store, it was designed with the expectation people would come to the store to eat their pizza or spend a couple hours. Some of the readers will remember a pizza chain saying they deliver 30 minutes or it is free. There was a number of accidents which stopped the advertisements; however, consumers want fast pick-up and delivery which was not something Pizza Hut does well.

Yum President Chris Turner says Pizza Hut has many strengths and controls 15.5% of the US pizza market down from 19.4% in 2019 according to Technomic, a food service consulting company.

The Pizza Hut team has been working hard to address business and category challenges: however Pizza Hut’s performance indicates the need the brand realize its full value, which may be better executed outside of Yum Brands.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there is a reason why longevity is difficult in the food industry although we all have to eat. Things change, consumers change and business has to adapt or the license to print money is gone. There is money to be made, but growth rates change.

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

In every economy, people look to a few numbers which sum up the direction of the economy. For example, the average age to buy a new home is 40 years of age. (it has taken the average person working for 20 years to afford the down payment on the house and enough credit to furnish the house). This can be a good thing, but when housing and its expenses allows for many indirect jobs, it would be a factor in a slowing economy.

In an article by Sydney Ember of the New York Times News Service, President Trump’s policies while they might be effective in the long-term are having a detrimental effect on the construction industry.

Tony Rader, the chief relationship officer at National Roofing Partners, a commercial roofing company in Coppell, Texas says it just seems like every time we turn around, we have something else to fight.

Tariffs have pushed up prices of many parts that go into home building such as screws, plates and other supplies.

The tariffs are on a wide-ranging products and while they are meant to encourage more domestic manufacturing, this has not been the case. The complicated nature of supply chains means that it will take time for companies that buy materials from abroad to shift gears. It is also unclear whether foreign suppliers, American companies or consumers will shoulder the extra costs and how much prices will rise from consumers? (in your community do you see manufacturers setting up shop to build in America?)

This year, the National Association of Home Builders estimated tariffs would inflate the cost of building a typical home by $10,900. Prices on construction materials are up 2.3% from a year earlier according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Iron and steel prices are up 9.2%, copper wire and cable are up 13.8%.

In terms of people to build the construction projects, it is estimated that the workers living illegally in the US make up 13% of the construction industry in 2022. Construction projected demand is the need for 500,000 construction workers. The industry unemployment rate is 3.2% a record low.

Selma Hepp, chief economist at Cotality, a real estate data provider, says we already seen some challenges both in terms in the terms of cost of materials being driven higher and now the labor shortages being exacerbated by deportation policies. I think we have not seen the worst of it yet.

In terms of spinoffs of construction, trucks are needed to move supplies, according to the National Trucking Association, shipping of supplies are down 30%. The trucking industry employs 30 million people versus the 2 million in the build out of the AI data centers. At the moment, less truckers are working.

President Trump might have a good idea, but good ideas need implementation and often government assistance to bridge the gap. If most of the supply system is based on lower prices, if a company sets up shop in America at what point will they match the price point? Given the government is trying to spend less, why would they help businesses more?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often times with government they have reasonable ideas but governments send conflicting messages. For example, we want aluminum to be made in the US, but what is the biggest cost to making aluminum – very inexpensive electricity. In the US due to demand for AI data centers, electricity prices are going up. Fortunately, most dividend paying stocks have the ability to make profits through each economic cycle and the ability to ensure government policies are the correct one for them.

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

Shortly after government was invented regulations or red tape came into event. A few weeks later somebody complained about the red tape because of the restrictions it imposed. Centuries later, red tape is still being complained about and every once in a while, a government wants to cut red tape.

In an article from the New York Times News Service, while those of not from Europe tend to think because of the European Union or EU status, there should be less regulations, but that is not the case. Cumbersome bureaucracy – covering everything from hiring requirements to financial regulations – can stifle companies wanting to grow.

The former President of European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, wrote a report recommending a single capital market.

Despite the challenges, 35,000 early-stage companies in the EU and Britain were established in 2024, more than 4 times as many as a decade ago. Venture capital firm, Atomico estimated investment of those 35,000 firms is $426 billion.

The downside according to Atomico is European companies raised 2/3’s as much funding relative to their American counterparts and achieved half their success.

Two examples among many are: a financial startup in Ireland to work on a standardized credit score. The company gained a foothold in Greece and Cyprus but failed to get into other markets. Part of the reason is the myriad interpretations of the trade bloc. The regulation functioned more as a legal framework than a technical guide, so it is open to hundreds of interpretations.

Another example is Gravity Wave, a Spanish clean-tech company that removes plastic from the ocean and recycles it into furniture or pellets. The founders visited dozens of plants to source local recyclers in Italy and Greece to avoid some of the regulations.

A problem is recyclers did not want Gravity Waste product because it contains both plastic and fishing nets. The fishing nets get stuck in the machines.

Even registration was a headache, the solution was to set up 3 companies: one for waste collectors, one for production and one for sales.

Every company tends to protect its own companies.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, once a company is established it likes regulations because regulations hurt the competition. When discussing cutting regulations one must ask who does it benefit and who does it hurt? There is a reason, cutting red tape has been an issue for generations.

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

In all negotiations each side has advantages and disadvantages, most of them are known but each side brings something the other side does not think they have as an advantage. The biggest negotiations in the world are between the 2 biggest economies China and the US. Over the years, the US evolved into the number one consumer economy or service based, while China developed into the number one manufacturing economy.

In an article by Alexandra Stevenson of the New York Times News Service, China believes it has advantages such as a monopoly as the world’s supply of critical materials. It also has an advantage of booming factories.

The strength is on display in the city of Yiwu, home of the world’s largest wholesale market where toys, home electronics and drones are stuffed into complexes that span multiple city blocks. Yiwu unveiled another trade center that is the size of hundreds of football fields (think of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago), the names are International Business and Trade City, Yiwu International Expo Center, and Yiwu International Trade Mart, Shopping and Touring Area. The city is located southwest of Shanghai.

Much of the merchandise used to be sent to the US, but tariffs force a change and now new buyers in Europe and Southeast Asia are making up for the loss in US traffic.

China’s factories are helping produce a trade surplus with the world of $875 billion.

There are trouble signs in the overall economy as Chinese consumers cut back on their spending. However, at the moment new markets in Southeast Asia and South Africa are opening up.

The question mark of increased trade to other countries outside the US, is will they allow free trade to continue or will they impose tariffs?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies have advantages and disadvantages, for example having a billion-dollar product is a very good thing, J & J had dozens of them. The advantage to own J & J is if all the products remain stagnate, it was going to be a good year, but if one of them catches fire and sells even more it will be a great year. If you own dividend producing companies, your risk goes down and hopefully the reward can go higher.

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