📅 On This Day
Hamilton's Funding Act Births America's Public Credit Market
On August 4, 1790, President Washington signed the Funding Act, the cornerstone of Alexander Hamilton's financial vision. The young federal government absorbed the states' Revolutionary War debts and issued Treasury securities backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. That single stroke established the principle of honoring public obligations — the bedrock upon which every risk-free rate calculation and dividend discount model has rested ever since.
From war debt to Wall Street: one signature in 1790 made U.S. Treasuries the world's benchmark for safety.
🇺🇸 US
Source: Wikipedia; U.S. Treasury
🌍 Around the World
Canada's Dividend Withholding Rate Depends Heavily on Where You Hold
Canada withholds 25% on dividends paid to non-residents by default, but U.S. investors typically see that reduced to 15% under the Canada-U.S. tax treaty — usually handled automatically by the depositary bank. The real surprise is retirement accounts: certain U.S. tax-advantaged accounts may qualify for a full exemption, while IRAs and 401(k)s generally cannot recover the 15% withheld, creating a quiet but compounding drag over time.
In a taxable account, IRS Form 1116 lets most U.S. investors claw back that 15% Canadian withholding in full.
🇨🇦 CA
Source: Canada-U.S. Tax Convention; PwC Tax Summaries
🔥 Dividend Streak
Commerce Bancshares Quietly Grows Its Dividend Through Six Generations
Founded in 1865 to help rebuild post-Civil War Kansas City, Commerce Bancshares has grown its dividend for 57 consecutive years, with increases stretching back to 1969. The conservatively run bank declined TARP bailout money in 2008 and remains guided by the sixth-generation Kemper banking family. History runs deep here — a young Harry Truman once worked at the institution, and his housemate at the time was Arthur Eisenhower, brother of a future president.
Kansas City quiet money: CBSH has raised its dividend every year since 1969, bailouts declined, family still at the helm.
CBSH — Commerce Bancshares Inc
Source: Wikipedia — Commerce Bancshares
💡 Did You Know
That 13F Filing You Just Read Is Already Up to Six Weeks Old
Institutional managers have 45 calendar days after quarter-end to file their 13F disclosures, meaning a position opened on January 2 might not surface publicly until mid-May — and may already be gone. The popular pastime of cloning legendary investors' portfolios from their filings is always, by design, an exercise in reading yesterday's newspaper. The manager's actual holdings on the day you read the report may look nothing like what was filed.
"Whale watching" 13Fs is compelling — just know you're always working from a portrait, never a live feed.
US
Source: SEC.gov