The numbers are starting to support something I’ve long argued about AI: Yes, this technology is shifting the job picture—but it’s not throwing millions out of work.

Instead, the economy is shifting.

The new story? While tech-sector jobs are being cut (temporarily, I believe), growth in other areas—including those that are employing AI to drive growth (and hiring along with it)—is flourishing.

Investors, however, still haven’t caught on. And an ongoing stream of dour headlines—from a “hot” war in Iran to a trade war with Canada—has distracted them further.

That’s set up an opportunity in high-yielding, equity-focused closed-end funds (CEFs) like the Liberty All-Star Equity Fund (USA), payer of a blockbuster 11.4% dividend.… Read more

Let’s discuss an investor who banks a $34,533 dividend check on the first of every month. From one fund alone!

Think you can survive on $34,000 in passive income per month, too? From just one position?

Of course you do. And right now, you and I can buy this monthly payer for a better price than the big shot! (Who, by the way, keeps working long days—not what many of us would do with a $34K monthly paycheck!)

I’m talking about Emmanuel “Manny” Roman, the CEO of PIMCO. Yes, that PIMCO, the most famous bond shop in the world. It was the old home of Bond King Bill Gross, who has since been deposed.… Read more

Is 2026 a replay of 2022? Plenty of bond investors think so.

But they’re wrong. And we’re happy to take the other side of the argument!

We’ll do that in the form of a closed-end fund (CEF) yielding a stout 10.3%—and sending that fat payout drip, drip, dripping into our accounts every month.

As we break down this overdone fear, I think you’ll see that it’s a classic example of “first-level” thinking. That’s another way of saying that the mainstream crowd is, as usual, making decisions based on the headlines and nothing more.

The “headline” in this case is the spike in 30-year Treasury yields, which recently broke over highs last seen in late 2023, after the Fed had had pumped rates from 0.25% in early 2022 to all the way up to 5.5%:

Treasury Rates Rise, Bond Holders Panic

That chart alone is enough to prompt first-level investors to dump bonds.… Read more

Look, we all know the old “truism” of investing: Want higher returns? You’d better be prepared to take on higher risk.

That’s not always true, however. In fact, sometimes markets do strange things, and a so-called “conservative” investment can turn around and deliver stunning returns. This is even more common in the world of closed-end funds (CEFs), where even stranger things can happen than in the “regular” stock world.

That’s in part because CEFs are a small market, so they tend to draw more individual investors, but fewer hedge funds and big banks. That can cause CEFs to overreact to some changes in the economy and markets and underreact to others, setting the stage for those strange moves I just mentioned.… Read more

Small-cap stocks have been so miserable for so long that even a healthy beating of their large-cap peers across 2026 hasn’t been enough to give them any buzz.

Good news for us, and anyone else looking for 6.7%-16.3% yields on the cheap.

It’s been a rough decade for the “junior mint” shelf of stocks! Mega-caps have been the flavor du jour. In fact, by the S&P 600’s count, small caps have only topped their big brothers once since 2016—and that was a “lesser loss” in 2022!

Wall Street is understandably skeptical that 2026’s outperformance is a sign of a bigger pivot.… Read more

We don’t often see the European Union as a major driver of stock returns.

I mean, American investors usually see the EU as stuffy and overregulated—when they think about it at all! But I urge you to reconsider, because this could be about to change.

When it does, funds with exposure to the continent—including an 8.5%-yielding closed-end fund (CEF) called the Allspring Global Dividend Opportunity Fund (EOD)—could catch a lift.

Let me be clear: This potential boost from Europe is only one reason to take a look at EOD. The main one is the fund’s discount to net asset value (NAV, or the value of its underlying portfolio).… Read more

Three investors walk into a bar and start talking retirement. But just two of them volunteer their honest opinions.

The third sits there and haughtily judges them!

First up, a 75-year-old retiree. He looks at what the S&P 500 (America’s ticker!) offers these days. Today, it’s never paid less. Our veteran investor shrugs and gives up on dividends: “Not much you can do about these paltry yields.”

His counterpart is a 79-year-old who was told as a young man that he would care more about his dividends as he aged. Yup. (Spoiler alert! “They” were right, the man says. More from him later.)… Read more

It’s September—traditionally the weakest month for stocks—and we contrarians are responding.

We’ve got the (ugh!) midterms coming up. Tariff unpredictability has returned. And scorching long-term bond yields have (so far) resisted Treasury Secretary Bessent’s efforts to rein them in.

Let’s be honest: Things are going to get volatile.

Our plan? Go on offense and defense at the same time.

Of course, income is at the center of our strategy. We’re tapping market choppiness with an 8.8%-paying fund that loves volatility and sports a payout that gets stronger the longer the chaos lasts.

In fact, this fund—the Nuveen S&P 500 Dynamic Overwrite Fund (SPXX)—is already hiking payouts, to the tune of 25% with the July payment.… Read more

Right now—today—we’re looking at a terrific buy window on 8%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs). Concerns over higher interest rates have put some of these often-ignored income plays on sale.

So today, we’re going to take a closer look at them. We’ll start by debunking a CEF myth called “return of capital,” or ROC, that has caused many investors to miss out on the sustainable high income streams these funds offer.

Let me be clear on what they’re missing out on. On average, the S&P 500 yields about 1% today and posts total returns of about 8.5% per year. That means a million bucks in the S&P 500 will earn about $85,000 in profit on an annualized basis, but just $10,000 of that would come in the form of dividends.… Read more

This company handed nearly one-third of its value back to shareholders last year. I’m talking about 30.5% of the market cap back to its owners!

By contrast, the S&P 500 yields 1.0%, an all-time low. So we’re talking about a stock that is dishing 30 times the dividend yield of “America’s ticker.”

The headline yield on Albertsons Cos. (ACI) doesn’t do its “total yield” justice. It reads 5.5%. Sure, but the grocer also offered an additional 25% rebate via buybacks. This number is invisible to every yield screen, stock scanner, and (yes) AI prompt asking about dividends. Which is great for contrarians like us searching for value!… Read more