📅 On This Day
GI Bill's 1944 Signing Laid Groundwork for Dividend Aristocrats
On June 22, 1944, FDR signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act — the GI Bill — unleashing low-cost mortgages and business loans for returning WWII veterans. That single stroke of a pen engineered America's suburban expansion and ignited the middle-class consumer economy. For income investors, the demand tailwinds it created for retail, consumer staples, and homebuilding would go on to build the economic moats underlying what we now call the Dividend Aristocrats.
The law that housed a generation of veterans quietly laid the foundation for decades of unbroken dividend growth.
🇺🇸 US
Source: Public Law 78-346, 58 Stat. 284 (Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Archives
🌍 Around the World
Sweden's Dividend Season Flows Through Storied Investment Dynasties
Sweden's equity culture is unlike almost anywhere else in the world — built around powerful listed holding companies such as Investor AB, founded in 1916 by the Wallenberg family, which own stakes in major industrials and pass dividends through to their own shareholders. Most Swedish companies pay a single annual dividend in the spring following AGM approval, creating a concentrated burst of income each year. Industrial names like Atlas Copco, founded in 1873, and SKF, founded in 1907, anchor this tradition.
One AGM season, one annual payment — Sweden's concentrated dividend calendar rewards patient, long-horizon income investors.
🇸🇪 SE
Source: Investor AB investor relations; Nasdaq Stockholm
🔥 Dividend Streak
Bankrupt Twice, Rejected by Coke — PepsiCo Now a 53-Year Dividend King
Pepsi's inventor went bankrupt in 1923, the company failed again in 1931, and twice it approached Coca-Cola about selling — twice it was turned away. In one of business history's stranger chapters, a cash-strapped Soviet Union later paid for Pepsi syrup with 17 submarines plus a cruiser, frigate, and destroyer, prompting CEO Donald Kendall to quip he was disarming the Soviets faster than the U.S. government. The company that went broke twice has now raised its dividend 53 consecutive years running.
From bankruptcy courts to Dividend King status — PEP's streak, starting in 1973, is as improbable as its Soviet navy deal.
PEP — PepsiCo Inc
Source: americanbusinesshistory.org; foreignpolicy.com — Pepsi Soviet Navy deal
🔥 Dividend Streak
Bankrupt Twice, Rejected by Coke — PepsiCo Now a 53-Year Dividend King
Pepsi's inventor went bankrupt in 1923, the company failed again in 1931, and twice it approached Coca-Cola about selling — twice it was turned away. In one of business history's stranger chapters, a cash-strapped Soviet Union later paid for Pepsi syrup with 17 submarines plus a cruiser, frigate, and destroyer, prompting CEO Donald Kendall to quip he was disarming the Soviets faster than the U.S. government. The company that went broke twice has now raised its dividend 53 consecutive years running.
From bankruptcy courts to Dividend King status — PEP's streak, starting in 1973, is as improbable as its Soviet navy deal.
PEP — Pepsi CDR (CAD Hedged)
Source: americanbusinesshistory.org; foreignpolicy.com — Pepsi Soviet Navy deal
🔥 Dividend Streak
Bankrupt Twice, Rejected by Coke — PepsiCo Now a 53-Year Dividend King
Pepsi's inventor went bankrupt in 1923, the company failed again in 1931, and twice it approached Coca-Cola about selling — twice it was turned away. In one of business history's stranger chapters, a cash-strapped Soviet Union later paid for Pepsi syrup with 17 submarines plus a cruiser, frigate, and destroyer, prompting CEO Donald Kendall to quip he was disarming the Soviets faster than the U.S. government. The company that went broke twice has now raised its dividend 53 consecutive years running.
From bankruptcy courts to Dividend King status — PEP's streak, starting in 1973, is as improbable as its Soviet navy deal.
PEP — PepsiCo Inc
Source: americanbusinesshistory.org; foreignpolicy.com — Pepsi Soviet Navy deal
💡 Did You Know
Withholding Tax Can Make a Lower Yield the Better Income Deal
Dividend investors who shop globally by headline yield may be missing the more consequential number: after-withholding yield. A stock paying 5% in one country can deliver less cash to your pocket than one paying 4.5% in another if withholding tax rates diverge sharply. The gap widens in taxable accounts, and in many retirement accounts the foreign tax credit recovery that might offset the hit is limited — or simply unavailable depending on your structure.
Before chasing a higher yield abroad, check what the taxman takes at the border — it can quietly flip the comparison.
Source: Reinvesty adr_withholding_tax_profiles; PwC Tax Summaries