Updates on Investigation Into Multiple Explosions in Boston
April 18, 2013, 5:00 p.m. EDT Video and Photos Released in Bombings Case
Suspect 1 and Suspect 2Suspect 1 and Suspect 2Suspect 1 and Suspect 2Suspect 2Suspect 1Suspect 1Suspect 1Suspect 2Suspect 2Suspect 2Suspect 2
To Provide Tips in the Investigation
If you have visual images, video, and/or details regarding the explosions along the Boston Marathon route and elsewhere, submit them on https://bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov/. No piece of information or detail is too small.
You can also call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), prompt #3, with information. All media inquiries should be directed to the FBI’s National Press Office at (202) 324-3691.
No matter how it gets officially calculated, inflation is a real threat to your long-run ability to make ends meet. You need an effective way to fight that threat, especially now that potential changes to the official calculations are likely to slow the automatic benefits you’re used to getting from the old method.
Pick your Risk
In this era of abysmally low interest rates, there are no safe and surefire ways to protect yourself from the ravages of inflation. Even recent issues of TIPS bonds — the U.S. government’s Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, which are designed to help investors fight inflation — currently carry negative interest rates. That means investors will still lose money in real terms after those bonds adjust for inflation.
The real question these days isn’t whether you take risks with your money to try to keep pace with inflation — it’s what risks you take just to keep treading water in real terms.
In that light, owning the stocks of companies that pay dividends, have regularly increased their dividend payments, and look capable of continuing to raise their dividend payments just might be the best inflation fighter available to your arsenal.
Why Dividends May Be Your Best Bet
There are three key reasons to believe that successful companies can continue to raise their dividends at least as fast as inflation: accounting, real growth, and cost-cutting.
Accounting: Consider a company that likes to pay a dividend equal to 50 percent of its after-tax earnings to its shareholders as a reward for the risks of owning its stock. If its costs rise in line with inflation and it can pass a similar increase down the line to its customers (whose costs would also be rising in line with inflation), then it has an automatic gain in profits and dividends, in line with that inflation. The table below shows how it works:
First Year
Second Year, After 3% Inflation
Costs
$1,000,000
$1,030,000
Revenues
$1,100,000
$1,133,000
Pre-Tax Profits
$100,000
$103,000
Tax (35%)
$35,000
$36,050
Profit After Tax
$65,000
$66,950
Dividend (50%)
$32,500
$33,475
Dividend Increase
3%
Data from author’s calculations.
In reality, not all costs or prices rise exactly in line with inflation, but the general concept still holds.
Real growth: Of course, most companies wouldn’t be satisfied to just keep pace with inflation; they’re trying to grow their businesses in real terms, as well.
PIMCO doesn’t publicize it, but they have several bond market indexes. One index tracks global inflation linked bonds. Most investors are familiar with the TIPS, the US Treasury’s inflation linked bond offering. Many governments offer inflation linked bonds. The yields on these bonds are different from one country to another, as each country has different interest rates and rates of inflation. The yield on an inflation linked bond is very revealing, as it indicates what the market thinks the return will be on a normal bond (fixed coupon payments) after deducting for inflation. The table below shows real yields (based on the yields of inflation linked bonds) from the GLADI-Inflation Linked Bond Index on April 1st, 2013
Police in California are reportedly searching for burglars who broke into an officer’s home, poisoned two of his dogs and stole several items, including a cache of guns.
Lt. Bisa French of the Richmond Police Department told The Contra Costa Times that investigators believe the unidentified officer was targeted because he works in law enforcement. The officer’s dogs were poisoned so the perpetrators could carry out the burglary and one of the animals, a 1-year-old black Labrador retriever, died in a veterinary hospital the next day. The other, a K-9 dog in the police department, is recovering, French said.
“We’re obviously very upset by this,” French told the newspaper. “One of our own was targeted in this attack, and we think he was targeted specifically because he was an officer.”
The suspects stole five guns and some of the officer’s personal belongings, police said.
French said police are following up on leads, but had no suspects as of late Tuesday.
“We are looking for the public’s help,” French said.
A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects. Anyone with information is asked to call (510) 232-TIPS.
Aman identifying himself as the fired LAPD officer wanted in the murders of a coach, her fiance and a California police officer, taunted the father of one of the victims, ABC News reported.
A man claiming to be Christopher Dorner, the former LAPD police officer who is the subject of a massive manhunt in California after allegedly killing Monica Quan and two others, called Randall Quan, Monica’s father, and told him that he “should have done a better job of protecting his daughter,” according to court documents cited by ABC.
The call apparently came four days after Dorner allegedly killed Monica Quan and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, and 11 hours after he allegedly murdered a police officer in Riverside, Calif.
Randall Quan is a retired police captain who represented Dorner in a disciplinary hearing that led to his firing.
Dorner is believed to have made the call early Thursday afternoon, according to ABC.
Hours after authorities identified Dorner as a suspect in the double murder, police believe Dorner shot and grazed an LAPD officer in Corona and then used a rifle to ambush two Riverside police officers early Thursday, killing one and seriously wounding the other.
The crime spree spanned across a wide swath of Southern California, prompting several police agencies, including the FBI and US Marshall Service, to form a joint investigative task force.
Police are asking anyone with information to call (213) 486-6860 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Police in Illinois are hunting three gunmen after churchgoers were robbed during a Sunday service.
Witnesses at the Ira Grove Baptist Church in East St. Louis tell KTVI that the men, wearing bandanas over their faces, made everyone lie on the floor while they stole their cash and valuables.
East St. Louis Police Chief Michael Floore said no one was hurt in the incident.
About 50 people were inside the church at the time of the robbery, KTVI reports.
Anyone with information should call the East St. Louis Police Departmentor CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371 TIPS. A reward is being offered.
Police are searching for a suspect who shot a livery cab driver three times in a robbery attempt in the Bronx early Sunday morning.
Authorities say the gunman got into the victim’s cab around 5:10 a.m. on the corner of White Plains Road and Lafayette Avenue in the Soundview section. Once inside, the suspect displayed a firearm and demanded money.
The suspect then started shooting.
The victim was identified by his brother as Raphael Martinez. Fox 5 News reported that the driver only had $8 on him at the time of the attack.
The victim is listed in stable condition at a nearby hospital. It’s unclear where the bullets hit him.
Police have released photos of the suspect. He is described as a black man in his 20s with a goatee. He was last seen wearing a tan bubble jacket and a dark hoodie with “Abercrombie” written on the front.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
