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Ripple Effect

The Income Effect

Loading ...Addison Wiggin

September 11, 2025 • 1 minute, 44 second read


DividendsIncome

The Income Effect

Your investment returns come from just two sources.

The first is capital gains. As the AI bubble blows higher, that’s the big focus for investors.

That means the second source of returns is being overlooked.

What’s the second source? Income.

The dividend yield on the S&P 500 is a paltry 1.18% today, almost touching its 1999 low:

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Investors ignore income stocks at their own peril (Source: Multpl)

Dividend-paying stocks have a lot to offer investors. A company can restate its earnings – but they can’t restate a cash dividend.

Plus, dividend growth companies tend to offer lower beta, or volatility relative to the market itself.

Finally, as Jeremy Siegel has documented in Stocks for the Long Run, over an investor’s lifetime, reinvesting dividends can account for over half of an investor’s total returns.

With the growing likelihood of a terrifying bull market in stocks kicking off, investors can get a relative safe-haven with dividend-paying stocks.

With the Fed about to slash interest rates, dividends may soon be the best game in town for income investors.

Even with overall yields looking low, there are plenty of companies that still offer decent yields and the potential to grow their dividend over time. We have plenty of such holdings in our Model Portfolio.

~ Addison

P.S.: Grey Swan Live! this afternoon at 2 pm ET: Mark Jeftovic joins us for “Shadow Fed & the American Dream” — how a September rate cut could hit the dollar’s purchasing power, where the money-market flood might go next, and why “control of money” is migrating from central banks to code, corporates, and courts.

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No doubt, we’ll touch on the claims made by Anton Kobyakov, senior adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that the U.S. is using stablecoins to devalue its debt. Paid members, join us at 2 p.m. ET today.

If you’re not a paid member of the Grey Swan Investment Fraternity, you can review the benefits of becoming one here.

If you have any questions for us about the market, send them our way now to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com.


The Hindenburg Five

February 24, 2026 • Addison Wiggin

The stock market “rebalancing” is a polite way to put it. Energy and health care are getting a healthy boost. But tech hardware and software makers are still getting dressed down and have been asked to report to the principal’s office.

The great rotation underway has triggered a series of “Hindenburg Omens.” Five have occurred in recent weeks.

The Hindenburg Five
Piercing The Veil

February 23, 2026 • Addison Wiggin

The S&P 500 has traded in a 3.7% range over the past two months — less than half the 20-year median of 8.6%. One of the tightest ranges in modern history.

In trader parlance, the indexes are “flat,” a setup that often materializes before a sell-off at the top after a multi-year bull market.

Goldman Sachs told its own traders to be aware that institutional trading activity resembles a VIX reading near 35. Rather than a reading of 20, where the VIX has been trading over that same 2-month period.

The U.S. software ETF, IGV, tested its April 2025 lows last week and trades roughly 35% below its peak. The “SaaS-pocalypse” in software companies reflects the fear of Citrini’s 2028 scenario happening in real time.   That divergence now exceeds the spread seen at the peak of the Great Financial Crisis.

Under the surface, the “great rotation” we wrote about last week is threatening to widen.

Piercing The Veil
Oh. Canada

February 23, 2026 • Addison Wiggin

Despite its overly-educated 40-million-plus population, on a GDP per capita basis Canada is null. Collectively, the Great White North would rank as America’s second-lowest state, coming in above Mississippi, but below Alabama.

Oh. Canada
Matt Milner: SpaceX + xAI: What It Means for You

February 20, 2026 • Addison Wiggin

SpaceX is the most valuable private startup in history — and if its success continues, it might become the most valuable public company in history.

After all, as Musk famously said in 2023, “I have never lost money for those who invest in me and I am not starting now.”

For investors, SpaceX has been a wild, joyful ride — and now the journey continues!

Matt Milner: SpaceX + xAI: What It Means for You