📅 On This Day
China's Yuan Shock Sends Global Markets Into Weeks of Turmoil
On August 11, 2015, China's central bank cut the yuan's daily reference rate by 1.9% — the currency's largest one-day decline since 1994. The Dow fell 212 points as investors feared China's economy was weaker than advertised, and that a cheaper yuan would export deflation across the world. The tremors didn't stop there: the move set off weeks of volatility that culminated in the 'Black Monday' crash of August 24, a sobering reminder of how currency moves can reach directly into dividend checks.
For multinationals with heavy Chinese revenue, the devaluation hit translated earnings — and ultimately dividends — hard.
🇨🇳 CN
Source: Bloomberg; The Washington Post
🌍 Around the World
Indonesia's High Yields Come Wrapped in Serious Withholding Tax Friction
Indonesia's default withholding tax for non-resident investors sits at 20%, and most tax treaties only bring that down to 15% for portfolio investors — with the more generous 10% rate reserved for direct owners of 25% or more. Claiming even the treaty rate requires your broker to file a DGT-1 form with Indonesian authorities, a step many Western retail platforms quietly skip, leaving foreign holders absorbing the full 20% hit. The payoff for those who navigate the paperwork is access to coal and palm oil giants like Adaro and Bukit Asam, where yields of 15–20% emerge during commodity booms — though payouts can collapse toward zero when prices turn.
Indonesia's dividends can be extraordinary — but they're cyclical, not compounding, and the tax friction is real.
🇮🇩 ID
Source: PwC Indonesia withholding tax summary; Indonesia Acclime WHT guide; US-Indonesia Tax Treaty
🔥 Dividend Streak
Federal Realty Stands Alone as the Only REIT Dividend King
Among hundreds of listed real estate investment trusts, Federal Realty is in a category entirely its own: the only REIT to reach Dividend King status, with roughly 57 consecutive years of dividend increases as of 2025, a streak stretching back to 1968. REITs are structurally cut-prone — they must distribute the bulk of their income while carrying heavy debt loads, leaving thin cushion when recessions or rate spikes arrive. Federal Realty threaded that needle even through COVID, trimming its annual raise to a token penny rather than breaking the chain.
When every other REIT blinked, FRT kept raising — a testament to the power of disciplined real estate underwriting.
FRT — Federal Realty Investment Trust
🇺🇸 US
Source: Sure Dividend; The Motley Fool
💡 Did You Know
The UPREIT Structure Lets Landlords Trade Buildings for REIT Income, Tax-Free
Most major US REITs operate as UPREITs — Umbrella Partnership REITs — and the structure is quietly one of real estate's most elegant dealmaking tools. Under Section 721 of the Internal Revenue Code, a private landlord can swap a property for Operating Partnership units in the REIT rather than selling for cash, deferring the capital gains tax entirely while collecting distributions that mirror the REIT's dividend. For the REIT, this sidesteps cash auctions against private equity, keeping acquisition costs lean and preserving the FFO growth that ultimately funds dividend increases.
The UPREIT is why so many family-owned properties end up inside public REITs — everyone walks away happy, for now.
Source: IRS Section 721; Nareit UPREIT structure guide