Category: Commentary

Are Companies Really Dumping ALEC?

Everyday-Freethought / / Commentary, Politics, Stocks

I have been following ALEC Exposed on Twitter. I blogged about the announcements that Coca-Cola (KO) and Procter and Gamble (PG) had stopped supporting ALEC.

Recently there was an announcement on the PR Watch site that Wal Mart (WMT) has also stopped supporting ALEC. (There is another article here.) This sounds like great news. Another dividend growth stock makes a good move to stop supporting an organization that pushes bad policy.

But I went to the Wal Mart web site to see if I could find a press release stating that they are no longer supporting ALEC, and I could not find one. The articles about WMT dumping ALEC link to a Reuters article. I could not find anything on the web sites for KO and PG, and I could not find anything there either.

I wonder why these companies would not put a press release on their sites. Since the Trayvon Martin “incident”, more knowledge about ALEC has come out, and it has not been positive (since for most people in this country ALEC is not a positive force). Part of me thinks that these companies are just saying they are no longer supporting ALEC. I will look out for their annual reports and see if I can find anything.

I tweeted ALECExposed and PRWatch my concern and there was no response.

 

I May Buy More KO Since They Are Leaving ALEC

Everyday-Freethought / / Commentary, Everyday Dividends, Politics, Stocks

I have about 50 shares of Coca-Cola (KO). Recently, KO stopped contributing to ALEC. Bravo KO! So far I have simply bought stocks based on economic fundamentals and their dividend policy. I have not made too many buy or sell decisions based on social or political views. But now I am thinking about buying some more KO because of this anti-authoritarian move by KO.

Are there any pro-atheist dividend paying stocks? That sounds like such a narrow niche there might be an ETF for it.

A good article on the debt ceiling

Everyday-Freethought / / Commentary, Everyday Dividends

Originally posted 2011-08-01 23:14:31

So, it looks like there is going to be a debt ceiling deal. They really went down to the wire.

A few weeks ago, I noted that very few of the dividend blogs that I read were commenting on the debt ceiling. Dividend Monk has a pretty good article that he wrote a few days ago that looks pretty good. I just found it odd that almost nobody was talking about this in the dividend blogosphere.

Cramer RSS Typo for 2011-07-25 and Debt Ceiling

Everyday-Freethought / / Commentary, Everyday Dividends, Jim Cramer

Originally posted 2011-07-25 22:22:13

I am still trying to decide what to do about the debt ceiling debate. I had my brokerage account set up to automatically re-invest my dividends into the stock. I have changed that for some of my stocks to go to cash. I have not set any stops. The market did not go down as badly as I thought it would.

Also: There is a typo in the RSS feed entry for tonight’s episode of Mad Money:

The Dow clawed its way back from steep, triple-digit losses earlier today but lost steam once again before the close.  Find out if the narket is at debt’s door.  Plus, after reporting a better than expected quarter and raising guidance, could ETN help your portfolio surge?  Jim gets answers from its CEO.  And, flea market find?  Find out which comapny could have hidden value.  Jim reveals his surprising discovery in tonight’s Under The Radar.

What To Do WRT The Debt Ceiling

Everyday-Freethought / / Commentary, Everyday Dividends

Originally posted 2011-07-10 20:19:18

There is a lot of talk all over about the debt ceiling negotiations in Washington DC. Will they come to a deal in time? What will happen if they do make a deal? What will happen if they do not?

I read an article on Seeking Alpha predicting that there will be a deal in time. The author and commenters all think that regardless of what happens there will be a huge sell-off.

I have a friend who used to work on the floor of the NYSE who sold his stocks before the crash in 2008. He put money back in the market in 2009, and sold his stocks recently. He is telling me that I should sell all my stocks.

Dividend investors are more concerned with cash flow than stock price. Many dividend-paying stocks went down severely in price in 2008-2009, but still maintained their dividend payments. I do not have a lot of money. I do not know if I can honestly stomach a large drop in price. I may put a limit order on some of my stocks just to give myself some peace.

A lot of the dividend blogs that I read have had almost no articles talking about how a debt ceiling deal might affect stocks. It could cause a lot of companies to stop paying dividends. The economy could freeze up even more than it did in 2008.

The Dividend Pig has a link to an article to DIY Investor in which the author says he will vote against all incumbents regardless of party if there is no deal. Dividend Monk embeds a CNBC video with an interview with Warren Buffett in which he talks about the debt ceiling. Buffett points out that Republicans raised the debt ceiling several times under George W. Bush. In all seriousness, why do so many Republicans only care about how much money the government spends when we have a Democratic president?

Those two articles were the only two that I saw in the dividend blogs that I look at that talk about the debt ceiling. I find it odd that there is this silence about something that could have a serious effect on the economy.

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