Malkiel

Three Stocks That Pay Monthly Dividends

Corporate management has been steering the building of American capitalism for so long that it's hard to even imagine what corporate governance and stock investment would look like if the shareholders were really treated as the owners of the enterprise, the Board members did their jobs in overseeing management, and managers were hired hands, not carpetbaggers elevated to the status of "super-shareholders" through sweet stock and option payouts. Can you imagine how much enthusiasm there would be for stock investing if most American corporations paid out quarterly or monthly dividends? Then the private 401k system of retirement envisioned by the movement conservatives could actually work. The go-go investing crowd which has been in control since Gordon Gekko's time posit the theory that dividends waste capital a company should be using to build the enterprise, but their idea of building the enterprise seems to always consist of hired ceo's telling tethered Board members that they really need to overcompensate new hires with massive blocks of stock and options, which can be cashed in at the expense of the shareholders in the marketplace. The system is designed to allow savvy insiders to take advantage of retail buy-and-hold investors. Shareholders need to insist that they receive their share of the wealth up front in the here and now from dividends and bonds, and institutional shareholders need to separate the interests of their customers from the social class interests of their ceo golf buddies...