This “growth without hiring” trend we’ve been talking about these past few weeks is en fuego: Microsoft (MSFT) is the latest to say it’s cutting expensive humans, announcing last week that it will lay off 9,000 people.

That comes on top of 6,000 cuts in May. Six thousand here, 9,000 there. As they say, pretty soon you’re talking about serious numbers!

The tech bros aren’t saying it out loud—though some, like Amazon.com (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy, are (he could barely conceal his enthusiasm when discussing this seismic shift from expensive humans to cheaper machines)—but AI is clearly “at work” in Big Tech, pushing out humans by the thousands.… Read more

Maybe you’ve heard some variation on this fear in the last few years:

A lot of American companies are going to default on their debts.

I know I have. Frankly, pushing back on it was among the most contrarian calls I’ve made during my investment career. And it was tough to stick with. I’ve been in plenty of conversations with bankers, hedge fund managers and other Wall Street types who thought a default wave was right around the corner.

But it wasn’t. And it isn’t now—even though the fear remains. And we’re going to tap this ongoing misconception for a cheap (but getting less cheap every day) 8.6% dividend in just a second.… Read more

ADP showed us that the private sector is now shedding jobs. That’s bad for workers—but it’s great news for earnings season.

Slowing employment means easing wage pressures and lower inflation. It also brings better profit margins and, our favorite of all, dividend hikes. Let’s talk about five firms that recently raised their payouts 25% to 400%

Are these one-hit wonders or will AI-driven savings make these dividend hike sequels even better?

Profit growth brings dividend growth. Which then translates to share-price gains. That’s the idea behind my “Dividend Magnet” strategy. When a company announces that it’s going to pay more for the foreseeable future, it’s a bold statement.… Read more

Well, that didn’t last long.

A few months ago, all we heard from the mainstream media is that the “sell America” trend was going to stick around for a long time.

Nowadays, we’re still hearing that. But one corner of the market—closed-end funds (CEFs)—is telling us something interesting: That investors are starting to turn their attention back to the US.

That’s given us an opportunity to front-run this quiet shift now, while it’s still early, with some high-yield CEFs trading at attractive discounts. In a second, I’ll walk you through the signal we’re getting from two of the biggest US-focused CEFs—one holding stocks, the other corporate bonds.… Read more

Ignore the vanilla mainstream media. Small business mojo is gaining steam. Main Street getting its groove back will directly benefit these two (7.2% and 8.8%) dividends.

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index washed out in April alongside the stock market. Despair hit desperation levels not seen since December 2012. But the malaise has quickly given way to positivity.

Small biz sentiment has increased for two straight months and counting. Why the turnaround? Two letters: AI.

Shanell Camp, owner of Shaded by Shanell (an up-and-coming beauty brand) explained her excitement to me about ChatGPT, her “go to” resource for brainstorming, marketing help and more.… Read more

Will the new peace in the Middle East hold? What will happen when the “reciprocal tariff” deadline arrives on July 9?

Truth is, no one knows. But we contrarians DO know this: Shaky times like these are tailor-made for us.

Yes, the S&P 500 has been shrugging off all of this (stocks do climb a wall of worry, after all). That’s true. But it’s also caused a lot of mainstream investors to miss the many strong dividend deals that are still on the board.

Near the top of my list for these “dumpster-dive” payers is the Hershey Co. (HSY).… Read more

I know it’s easy to get discouraged by the lack of bargains (not to mention the pathetic yields) available to us today, after stocks bounced back from the tariff-driven selloff.

But I have good news on this front: We still have plenty of places to hunt for big yields, even in this “pricey” market.

We just have to step a bit beyond mainstream choices—specifically to closed-end funds (CEFs), of which there are about 400 or so on the market. As I write, these funds, which are as easy to invest in as any ETF, yield around 8.7% on average.

But it’s the valuation story (source of the price upside we demand in addition to those big dividends) that’s particularly compelling here—and that side of things often gets overlooked as investors zero in on CEFs’ outsized dividend payouts, many of which are paid monthly.… Read more

“Programmer.”

My wife nailed it as we stepped into the open house, staring into the front room labeled “home office.” Shoes off, respecting the homeowners still living there.

“They’re hoping for a rentback,” explained the realtor. “The couple has to move out of town for work.”

Ah, another casualty of the return-to-office mandate! Back to the Bay Area for these two. They’re far from alone. Major cities—Boston, New York, San Francisco—are shaking off five years of downtown rust, preparing for commuters back four or more days each week.

Even here in Sacramento, I had to battle morning traffic this week for the first time in more than five years.… Read more

“Those are some crazy numbers.”

An old friend had messaged me, and that line caught my attention. As it turned out, he had 36 trillion numbers in mind: the national debt, in other words. That is a pretty striking figure, and it’s fair to ask how the country’s debt could go from a trillion dollars back in 1981 to 36 times that today.

“Very irresponsible, imo,” my friend wrote.

This sounds like a reasonable response, and many people think this way. But the problem here, from an investment perspective, is that most people look at the debt on its own, without considering the many other factors we’re going to delve into today.… Read more

Let’s talk about oil and gold dividends. Whether or not the new peace in the Middle East holds, there are some high-quality dividends worth owning anytime. These generous payers (up to 8%!) provide peace of mind just in case the geopolitical Jenga set gets knocked loose again.

We’ll start with crude, which had rallied to one-year highs. I was originally going to advise not chasing the “Strait of Hormuz” oil rally. Futures indicated (and still do) that lower prices are likely ahead. January 2026 still trades cheaper—suggesting temporary disruption at worst.

Back at home, you’ve probably heard (not least from me, often) that President Trump wants a lower Fed Funds Rate!… Read more