📅 On This Day
A 1788 Ratification Still Shields Your Dividend Payments Today
On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, giving it the force of law. For income investors, the quiet hero of that document is Article I, Section 10 — the Contracts Clause — which explicitly forbids states from passing any law impairing the obligation of contracts. That single line is the legal bedrock protecting corporate bond covenants, preferred stock dividends, and shareholder rights from state-level political interference.
Nearly 238 years on, a clause drafted by founders still stops local politicians from voiding your income stream.
🇺🇸 US
Source: U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10; National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
🌍 Around the World
Germany's Solidarity Surcharge Means Your Dividend Leaves Before You Do
German dividends arrive trimmed: the standard withholding rate is 26.375%, combining a 25% capital yields tax with a 5.5% solidarity surcharge on that amount — meaning a €100 dividend may initially land as roughly €73.63. U.S. investors covered by the bilateral tax treaty can reduce the burden to 15%, and many brokers apply that rate automatically for major ADRs. If the full 26.375% was withheld, a reclaim filed with Germany's Bundeszentralamt für Steuern typically processes in six to twelve months.
In tax-deferred accounts like IRAs, even the favorable 15% treaty rate is permanently lost — worth watching on a 3% yield.
🇩🇪 DE
Source: PwC Tax Summaries; Tax Foundation Europe
🔥 Dividend Streak
Northwest Natural Marks 70 Straight Years of Dividend Increases
Founded in Portland, Oregon more than 166 years ago as a straightforward gas utility, Northwest Natural Holdings has raised its dividend every single year since 1956 — 70 consecutive increases and counting. Along the way it expanded into water and renewables, but the raise never paused. That consistency places NWN among only six utilities to earn the Dividend King designation.
Seven decades of unbroken raises, through recessions, rate cycles, and energy transitions — NWN's streak is a study in quiet resilience.
NWN — Northwest Natural Gas Co
Source: https://www.suredividend.com/dividend-kings-nwn/
💡 Did You Know
Regulators, Not Investors, Made Banks the Home of Preferred Stock
Preferred stock's center of gravity shifted over the 20th century — from railroads and utilities to banks and financial firms — not because banks were particularly fond of the instrument, but because regulators allowed certain preferred shares to count as Tier 1 capital. A bank could issue preferred stock, shore up its balance sheet, and avoid diluting common shareholders all at once. That regulatory quirk is why financial-sector preferreds dominate the market today.
Income investors hunting preferred-stock yield are, whether they realize it or not, making a concentrated bet on banks.
US
Source: Federal Reserve; FDIC