Don’t rock the lazy dividend train

by Chris Becker

Nowhere is the cauldron of failed theologies of economics and finance, stoked by the fires of laziness and corporate greed, more apparent than in Australia.

The slavish devotion to dividends, and the taxation structure around franking credits, has stifled and retarded what could be a huge untapped market of real investment opportunities, continually dressed up as “serving the shareholders interests”, when all it does is allow executives to sit on piles of cash (mainly comprising their bonuses), sip tea and watch real investment opportunities float overseas.