Archive of entries posted on May 2011

Share of Government Employment in Labor Force Across OECD Countries

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The chart below shows the share of general government employment in total labor force across OECD countries: Click to enlarge Source: Bringing French Public Debt Down: The options for fiscal consolidation by Balázs Égert, OECD The Scandinavian countries of Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have the highest percentage of government workers relative to the total …

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27 Foreign Stocks Paying Dividends Quarterly

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Many investors have the view that foreign stocks pay dividends only annually. However this is not fully true. There are many foreign companies that pay dividends on a quarterly basis just like their U.S. peers. For example, European firms usually pay dividends twice a year – one in the form of interim dividend and the …

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Caution Warranted on Investing in Bank Stocks for Dividends

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Dividend is a powerful variable that confirms the profitability of a company. Unlike many other financial factors that can be used to evaluate a firm, dividend is a simple and quick way to determine a firm’s financial strength. However just dividend payment themselves do not give the full financial picture. This is especially true with …

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The Case for High-Yielding Foreign Dividend Stocks

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In a December 2009 post I wrote that the S&P 500 Index lost 23% from Dec 31, 1999 thru Dec 14, 2009 referring to an article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. During this time the indices of many other countries performed relatively better than the S&P 500. In that same article I quoted a piece in The …

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