This story appears in the December/January 2025 issue of Forbes Magazine. SubscribeFacing extinction, Sezzle chopped costs and hit on a strategy for making money from the heaviest users. The stock market noticed. By Hank Tucker, Forbes Staff The future looked grim in mid-2022 for Minneapolis-based Sezzle, an also-ran in the fast-growing buy-now, pay-later fintech business. It had burned through most of the $115 million it had raised in a 2019 initial public offering on the Australian stock market and two subsequent offerings. A rescue deal it had struck to be acquired by a competitor was collapsing, along with both companies’…

First of all, to be very clear: the private sector cannot replace the thousands of staff members, the billions of grant dollars, and the decades of experience that have made the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) the world’s most important government funder of development. The Trump administration’s demolition of USAID is already interrupting clinical trials, not to mention halting demining, anti-trafficking, and violence prevention efforts around the world, to name just a few areas of work. Especially in the places of greatest vulnerability, such as during disasters and after conflict, “aid is the only large-scale capital option,” emphasizes Aunnie…

Worried about the next round of tariffs? Tech disruption from DeepSeek? The geopolitical landscape? All of the above? Fret not my contrarian friend—here are seven wonderfully-sleepy dividend stocks. They yield between 5% and 14.1% and we are discussing them today because all seven boast low betas. This means these shares move less than the overall market. An admirable quality when it comes to a dividend stock because we’re not here for the price drama, we’re here for the payout. Beta represents an investment’s volatility against a benchmark. Stock beta is typically benchmarked against the S&P 500, aka “the market.” Beta…

Trade tensions ratcheted up to 11 this week, and I know that for many readers the wild swings we’re seeing can feel sickening. To you, I say that times like these are exactly why we hold the closed-end funds (CEFs) in our CEF Insider portfolio. Their high, steady dividends (more than 10% on average across the portfolio) let us collect our income while stocks regain their footing. We also avoid the trap of panic selling, then seeing the story whipsaw the other way, locking in our losses (which would’ve happened if you’d hit the sell button first thing Monday morning).…

A consortium led by MBK Partners, the North Asian private equity giant controlled by Korean billionaire Michael Kim, is acquiring Japanese advanced printed circuit boards maker FICT at an enterprise value of 100 billion yen (about $660 million). The consortium, joined by U.S. semiconductor testing company Formfactor, has signed a share purchase agreement with Japanese private equity firm Advantage Partners, MBK said in a statement on Thursday. MBK will acquire an 80% stake in FICT, while Formfactor will take the remaining 20%. Based in Nagano, central Japan, FICT was established nearly five decades ago as a printed circuit board unit…

Warren Buffett’s Investment Strategy: Building Your Own Berkshire Hathaway What if you could build your own version of Berkshire Hathaway? Not its vast scale, but its proven approach: owning exceptional businesses for decades at a time. At a time when high-frequency trading dominates market volume and the average holding period has collapsed to months, this approach might appear outdated. Yet the market’s most successful investors – from Warren Buffett to John Singleton and Ken Fisher – have built lasting fortunes by thinking more like business owners than traders. While many investors often opt for index funds and the traditional 60-40…

Key News Asian equities were mostly higher overnight as Mainland China and Hong Kong outperformed and Indonesia and Thailand underperformed. Markets in China shrugged off tariffs overnight with strong gains, led by growth and technology stocks. The anticipation is that Trump will make a deal with China on fentanyl, agricultural purchases, and possibly more. Shares in the world’s largest electric vehicle maker BYD surged +12% overnight on strong deliveries in 2024 and anticipation for its Intelligent Strategy Launch Event coming up next week. BYD and other China electric vehicle companies are well positioned to benefit from DeepSeek AI’s advancements in…

Many of you have written in asking about DeepSeek’s latest release and its potential effects on our dividends. Let’s discuss the latest in AI because, yes, there are ripples into Dividendland that are not fully appreciated by mainstream investors. First the DeepSeek disruption in AI, and let’s take vanilla dividend darling Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF (QYLD), which yields 12.2% as our example. Is that big divvie still safe and secure? Income seekers are constantly staring at the fund, writing in to ask me if they have permission to: Buy QYLD. Collect its monthly dividend. Never think about it again.…

The Panama Canal, a 51-mile maritime shortcut linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is a crucial artery of global trade and a long-standing focal point of international geopolitics. Since its completion by the United States in 1914, the canal has played a critical role in global supply chains by saving container ships weeks of travel around South America. The Panama Canal’s strategic importance has drawn renewed focus from the Trump administration amid concerns over rising tolls and Chinese influence. Why is Panama such a priority for the U.S.? The heightened interest is part of the Trump administration’s focus on exerting…

The DividendRank formula at Dividend Channel ranks a coverage universe of thousands of dividend stocks, according to a proprietary formula designed to identify those stocks that combine two important characteristics — strong fundamentals and a valuation that looks inexpensive. Archer Daniels Midland presently has an excellent rank, in the top 25% of the coverage universe, which suggests it is among the top most “interesting” ideas that merit further research by investors. 10 Oversold Dividend Stocks » But making Archer Daniels Midland an even more interesting and timely stock to look at, is the fact that in trading on Wednesday, shares…