Most people know something about Sparta – for many years people like me knew of the myth or legend of a prince stealing another man’s wife (Helen of Troy) and a battle for her. There have been numerous movies on the theme and because the story is compelling there will be likely more. Eventually you might ask who are the Spartans? The book The Spartans by Paul Carledge published by The Overlook Press, NY, 2003 is one book to begin to look for answers. The Spartans were a city state in Ancient Greece who a particular interest in combat. From an early age all young males took part in exercises that lead to having core values of self-sacrifice, community endeavor and achievement against all odds. In the movie 300 – 300 Spartan warriors against a army of Persians, one of the warriors went told there were enough archers to block out the sun, replied good we will fight in the shade.

In the era of city states (rather than countries we now favor) the rulers had to balance both strong defenses at home and trying to expand their territories. One of the methods they did this was to show hereditary claim to the area. In a couple of cases, bones were discovered (no one really knows who they were) and claimed to be one of the adjacent lands. The bones were brought back to Sparta and a large ceremony were “properly buried”. It seems which worked in the past is still working today – the uses of both myth and propaganda which are designed to bring the whole under the government’s diplomatic-military-political sway. The reality of the myth of Helen was another country had the reason to go fight Sparta.

Linking to dividend producing stocks, we often think or believe some of what we do is relative recent events when the reality is people have been doing it for centuries. In terms of dividend producing stocks, investing in profitable stocks never goes out of style and breaks through the myth and propaganda of other types of investing. The system needs both but real wealth to the average person tends to come from the tried and true method – investing in great profitable companies.

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

Every once in a while boxing movies are made and you might remember Rocky or a scene from it, particularly from the first one in his training and the great music when he runs up the steps in Philadelphia. Another interesting boxing movie is called Southpaw staring Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker and others. You can watch this movie along a variety of lines – it is a boxing movie – the Jake character is the world champion; loses his wife and his life goes downhill; he learns to recover and is given a chance to recover his crown, which means there is a family story; there is personal story; and there is a boxing story. The boxing story is the interesting aspect for this column. In the ring, the Jake character boxes but he really never learnt the skills – he has a great ability to take punishment and in the later rounds come to life to defeat his opponents. The great ability to take punishment means when he is over 40 he would likely have brain damage, however that is another consideration. The Jake character goes to the Forest character to teach him about boxing. The Forest character uses simple and everyday techniques – such as fastening ribbons across the ring and having Jake move in and around the ring without touching the ribbons ( think of the movie Entrapment with Catherine Zeta-Jones). The art of learning is not hard, but does require effort.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are many methods to investing and some work some of the time, one of the things you are looking for is methods that are consistent and long-term. Investing in profitable companies means you will do better over the long-term because they are profitable which means people want to invest in them and along the way you get paid a dividend because the company is profitable. It is never too late, although if you look at which companies are profitable 50 years ago and today, some of the names will be the same. Over that time those profitable ones had their shares go up, split, pay a dividend and the owners are wealthier because the company remained profitable. On the list will be some companies that no longer exist – which is the reason why you need to be continuing learning about the markets.

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

In recent weeks, you may have read about a desire for a mega billion dollar merger between Anheuser Busch InBev SA and SABMiller Inc. In the competitive beverage industry the best method to gain market share is to buy another company, thus margins can be maintained. Which leads to what other choices are there in the beverage industry, given besides water most people drink something and those that drink sometimes consume on a regular basis.

Charles Martin of Thomson Reuters used his company’s data base to look at the answer.

he started with the larger companies or those with a market cap greater than $ 250 million

he was looking for profitable companies with an operating margin of greater than 10%

the return on equity should be higher than 10%

if interest rates, leverage is a concern as a result he wanted firms with total long term debt to capital of less than 60%.

other variables include accounts receivable turnover and dividend yield.

Company                    Ticker     Mkt Cap   Operating   ROE Common  Long Term Debt     Accounts         Dividend

(US $ Bil)   Margin %   Equity  %          to Total Cap %       Receiv  Turn    Yield %

Coca-Cola                  KO-N      180.612         21.0             24.2                  26.4                      9.85                 2.9

PepsiCo                     PEP-N     143.528        14.4               27.4                51.3                      9.80                 2.6

SABMiller                   SAB-L       90.278         19.3               13.3               28.7                      14.00                2.0

Diageo                        DGE-L      70.28           29.3              32.6                41.5                        4.74                3.1

Monster Beverage     MNST-Q     27.672         30.3              30.5                0.0                        8.54                 0.0

Constellation Brands    STZ-N      26.278         24.8              16.9               54.0                       8.41                 0.2

Brown-Forman              BFB-N      22.284         32.8              36.7               24.1                       5.44                0.9

Dr Pepper Snapple        DPS-N     15.864          19.3             31.6                53.0                     9.88                 2.0

Boston Beer                   SAM-N       2.925          16.2             22.6                 0.1                      17.58               0.0

National Beverage        FIZZ-Q         1.467         11.6             35.3                 6.3                      10.93               0.0

AG Barr PLC                  BAG-L          .931         14.9             19.1                 8.7                      5.54                 2.3

Nichols  PLC                   NICL-L        .791           16.3            38.1                 0.0                      4.86                1.6

Fevertree Drinks           FEVR-L          .765           23.3            20.2                 9.9                      5.06               0.1

Corby                            CSW-T           .412            20.6           10.3                 0.0                       5.1                4.0

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are many choices in the marketplace and charts such as this one allows you to narrow down the choices in order to reduce the risks. If you were concerned about possible targets it would be important to look at how many shares are in friendly hands or what premium would have to be paid. There are other paths to take however the use of the charts allows you to narrow the choices.

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

The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds is the Chinese name for Baron Gustaf Mannerheim who was sent by the Tsar of Russia to travel to Beijing along the Silk Road and report back on the countries. It took him 2 years to do the journey and later he settled in Finland (as he born there) and his trip was incorporated in the university studies. One of the students who studied the reports was the author Eric Enno Tamm who decided to recreate the steps in 2006 (the 100th anniversary) and wrote the book The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds, published by Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, 2010. The journey takes place through the old USSR and China and both countries (among many others) in the past moved water from where it was seemingly abundant to more fertile areas. In many analysis this can be seen as doing a good thing – it was a massive infrastructure project – there was water in the north – the people are in the south. In both cases, the effects were to grow more cotton and wheat and population in the area was better off. In the second journey, Mr. Tamm reports the water sources are in a process of drying up which makes the land less fertile. The population was near a desert and the desert blooms, without water (in one place 13 months without rainfall) the desert races back to reclaim the land. The dust storms are bigger which results in more damage. There is salt in the earth and with less water to flush it, the land becomes even less productive and the cycle continues. What does a country do?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, for many companies, they had or have the goodwill of the government and for many years it was good. Now that things are changing, who should pay? who bears responsibility when in reality people believed they were making their lands more progressive and giving opportunity to the people? Government? Companies? Profitable companies? There is no answer that is easy, but there will be pressure on profitable companies. Has you company thought about it? made plans or can it easily move its operations if it is near the declining areas? Companies may try to do the right thing by taking advantage of opportunities in the marketplace, but every once in a while there are unintended problems.

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

Trying to do the right thing is easier said than done, for every company can always do better. One example is parts of China and the old USSR tried to irrigate lands to grow more cotton and wheat, which can be a good thing. The effect is over the years, water supplies are draining and areas near the deserts are fast becoming deserts again

The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds is the Chinese name for Baron Gustaf Mannerheim who was sent by the Tsar of Russia to travel to Beijing along the Silk Road and report back on the countries. It took him 2 years to do the journey and later he settled in Finland (as he born there) and his trip was incorporated in the university studies. One of the students who studied the reports was the author Eric Enno Tamm who decided to recreate the steps in 2006 (the 100th anniversary) and wrote the book The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds, published by Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, 2010. From the viewpoint of a North America the travel from Moscow to Beijing overland is a view which you do not often read about. Most of the time, the viewpoint is from Hong Kong to some of the cities which have grown dramatically along the Pacific Coast. The breadth and size of China is one of the views one can easily see along the journey. Although it is noted, Baron Mannerheim was sent by the Tsar partly to see if Russia decided to invade or attempt to gain a portion of China in the northeast for peace in the southwest, could they do it? or it was partly a geopolitical journey. Now days, it would be called a trade opportunity journey for the emphasis is moving goods and services from one area to another. Trade is available in peace time, gaining territory is for conflict situations and in conflict situations one group will be traded for another. At the time of the journey, Mr. Mannerheim was also looking at the resources particularly those underground – metals and mines. This leads to investing in global mineral companies – issues broader than the minerals in the ground will always be in play, sometimes more than others and peace allows for the mining and transportation of them.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as an investor you may wish to think you are investing in the goods and services of the company, but to others there will be other issues tied to the company. Many will be localized, but they are important to take into consideration for at some point the other issues will affect the stock price. It is sometimes why investing in companies in your backyard is easier.

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

The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds is the Chinese name for Baron Gustaf Mannerheim who was sent by the Tsar of Russia to travel to Beijing along the Silk Road and report back on the countries. It took him 2 years to do the journey and later he settled in Finland (as he born there) and his trip was incorporated in the university studies. One of the students who studied the reports was the author Eric Enno Tamm who decided to recreate the steps in 2006 (the 100th anniversary) and wrote the book The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds, published by Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, 2010. One of the interesting aspects of the book is how much life is same, but slightly different for many of the people along the way. The environment or making a living is the concern of the citizens, the second and usually distant concern is geopolitics. In the past 100 years the lands from St. Petersburg to Moscow to Baku to Kashgar to Zhengzhou to Beijing have been broken up, put together in the USSR, broken up to independent states and now slowly put together again. The lands have some resources – oil and gas which makes them valuable to both Russia and China. The growing influence of China and the demand for resources, the ability to move people into a region and to protect those interests are interesting stories. In addition, for the people of the lands in terms of the religion to which they practice has been both favorable and unfavorable to the governments of the day. When it is unfavorable, it is hard to practice. When it is favorable, life is a touch easier, still difficult but a touch easier.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, we all have a concept of time. Sometimes we believe we are short of time, sometimes we have lots of time, but books such as The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds gives a longer concept of time. Dividend paying stockholders tend to believe in a reasonable future (the world is not going to end) for we expect the basic elements of society to remain in place for a while to come. If you expect the basic structure of the economy to continue, then investing in profitable stocks is a good thing to do. The move to alternatives always takes place but the rate of change is likely less than you think or expect it, so look forward to the future and collect dividends along the way.

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

In the US, the key to the economy is the consumers. How they collectively spend their money drives the economy, however there are large consumer companies which should make profits because consumers buy their products year in, year out. The question is which ones do you start looking at? Peter Ashton of Recognia used his company’s Strategy Builder software to search. The criteria was:

market capitalization of $ 5 billion or more.

dividend yield of at least 2%

companies must have raised their dividends by 4% or more in the past year (Current Yield /Past Year’s Yield)

a beta between 0 and .75  which means the stock has 75% or less volatility than the overall market – the stock prices are more stable.

Rank  Company                      Ticker                 Mkt Cap              Beta            Dividend                Dividend Growth

(US$ Bil)                                 Yield %                  Rate      %

1. Philip Morris Int’l            PM-N                 121.8                  0.70               5.3                          8.4
2. Altria Group                    MO-N               106.3                   0.61               4.2                          8.7
3. Coca-Cola                     KO-N                 172.5                   0.49               3.3                          8.9
4. Hershey                        HSY-N                  20.3                   0.70               2.5                         12.7
5. Proctor & Gamble           PG-N                196.1                   0.62               3.7                           5.9
6. Kellogg                              K-N                   23.5                  0.59                3.0                          5.6
7. Kraft Heinz                     KHC-Q                 83.9                  0.33                3.1                          4.9
8. Campbell Soup               CPB-N                 15.7                  0.51                2.5                          7.6
9. Dr. Pepper Snapple          DPS-N                 14.9                 0.61                2.4                           7.9
10. Clorox                               CLX-N                 14.8                 0.54                2.7                           4.2

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are many choices and all the above companies are good choices. They are hard to go wrong with for they produce goods people tend to buy on a very regular basis and will continue to buy. Mr. Ashton used some criteria, but you always add more to eliminate or narrow down the field. Will you double and triple your money? once in a while but what you will not do is lose money and the first rule of investing is not to lose money. The dividend helps ensure you do not lose money.

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

At my local library are DVD to borrow and one which was seen was called The Admiral: Roaring Currents. The setting was in South Korea and the battle of Myeongyang in 1597. The Admiral had come from a defeat, had been tortured and was pressed back into command by the King (later he was asked why – loyalty to the King forever). As result of the earlier defeat the navy had 13 battleships. The Japanese were invading the country had more than 200 battleships and 100 other ships. The first reaction is fear – the odds looked like they are overwhelming stacked up against the navy, This reaction is seen in the men and the leadership of the navy, if you go to fight you are sitting ducks and then the Japanese would sail right through to the capital. The Admiral (Yi Sun-sin) says first fear then courage and then you can do anything and if we are right everyone will have the courage to help. A bonus for the Admiral is the straits where the Japanese navy is headed – the tides come in and out every 3 hours, however when the tides go out whirlpools are created which can be used in the battle. This and when the tides change so does the current – flowing with the current and then against it. Admiral Yi took his stance – uses his skills, used the currents in the straits and the courage of the other 12 battleships to inflict enough damage the Japanese retreated. The little guy can win.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you are a small investor, the odds are stacked against you to outperform hedge funds, institutional investors and variety of other large players in the investment world. This means you should stick to a niche area where the large investors help you; one area is dividend paying stocks. These stocks are profitable ones and large institutions hold them for the same reason you do – they are profitable, they pay a dividend and profitable stocks trade at higher multiples of earnings. When the stock price fall or go down there is an opportunity to buy and hold for a period of time,

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

In terms of the large international commodity firms, Glencore is the elephant in the room. It is one of the world’s largest producer of copper, nickel, zinc and aluminum; Another asset is a trading firm which seemingly was a license to print money. In addition the company has a $ 30 billion debt which needs to be serviced. When China was seemingly buying more and more raw materials at higher and higher prices, Glencore was a very profitable company, with the slowdown Glencore will pay the interest on its debt and earn little else. This has resulted in the stock price falling, similar other commodity company stock prices have fallen. In one sense the news is bleak, if you owned the shares directly. In another sense, there is opportunity to be had.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in all sectors of the commodity business there are still companies that will continue to earn a profit (albeit a smaller one than in couple years ago) and be able to pay dividends. The shares will have fallen as commodity prices are still in a downfall and have not begun to pick up. The way to earn wealth is to begin your homework on what companies are the best of the downfallen. Then begin to follow those companies with an eye to begin buying them when the market and you see there is an upturn in the commodity prices. When the time has changed over the next few months buy the best of the breed or the best stocks and ride the cycle until it is time to move onto another sector or alternative. Your asset values will grow, ideally there will be a dividend payment along the way, partly because when the dividend payment is under pressure, you know it is time to seek other alternatives.

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