📅 On This Day
Antitrust Law Signed in 1890 Eventually Minted Dividend Giants
On July 2, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act into law, passing Congress 51-1 in the Senate and 242-0 in the House. Its most consequential dividend chapter came in 1911, when the Supreme Court used it to dissolve Standard Oil into 34 separate companies. Many of those successors — ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips among them — grew into some of the most reliable income payers in American markets.
A near-unanimous Congress in 1890 could not have imagined it was also writing the origin story of generations of dividend income.
🇺🇸 US
Source: 26 Stat. 209 (Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890); National Archives
🌍 Around the World
Finland's Dividend Tradition Runs Deep, but Withholding Adds Complexity
Finland's market blends remarkable corporate heritage — Fiskars, founded in 1649, stands among the world's oldest companies — with industrial heavyweights like Kone, Wärtsilä, UPM-Kymmene, and Stora Enso. Most Finnish companies pay annual spring dividends, with some opting for installment splits. For foreign investors, Finnish withholding treatment can be layered: outcomes vary meaningfully by investor type, treaty status, and documentation requirements.
Treaty status and paperwork determine how much of Finland's spring dividends actually land in foreign investors' accounts.
🇫🇮 FI
Source: Nasdaq Helsinki; PwC Tax Summaries
🔥 Dividend Streak
J&J's Dividend Kept Rising Even Through Its Darkest Crisis
In September 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules reached store shelves. Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million bottles at a cost of roughly $100 million — a response now taught as the textbook standard for corporate crisis management. Through all of it, the dividend kept rising, extending a streak of consecutive annual increases that began in 1963 and now stands at 63 years.
Sixty-three years of unbroken dividend growth, including straight through a $100 million recall — that's a remarkable kind of resolve.
JNJ — Johnson & Johnson
Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982
🔥 Dividend Streak
J&J's Dividend Kept Rising Even Through Its Darkest Crisis
In September 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules reached store shelves. Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million bottles at a cost of roughly $100 million — a response now taught as the textbook standard for corporate crisis management. Through all of it, the dividend kept rising, extending a streak of consecutive annual increases that began in 1963 and now stands at 63 years.
Sixty-three years of unbroken dividend growth, including straight through a $100 million recall — that's a remarkable kind of resolve.
JNJ — Johnson & Johnson
Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982
💡 Did You Know
European Dividend Withholding Spans 0% to 35% Across Major Markets
Not all European dividends travel the same road to your account. Among major exchanges, the default withholding rate runs from 0% in the UK, Malta, and Cyprus all the way to 35% in Switzerland, with Finland, Sweden, and Belgium each sitting at 30%. Countries like the Netherlands and Luxembourg hold at 15%, while Germany lands at roughly 26.4%. Treaties can compress many of these rates — but the default rate determines how much cash arrives first, and how much paperwork follows.
The gap between a 0% and 35% withholding rate is wide enough to reshape the entire income case for a European holding.
Source: PwC Tax Summaries; Tax Foundation Europe